


Your Turn

by My_Name_Was_Taken



Category: Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: F/F, F/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Original Character, Self-Indulgent, Self-Insert, characters may be ooc, lots of game dialogue sorry, thh but with an OC, use of some head-canons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 18:55:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 21,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28835934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/My_Name_Was_Taken/pseuds/My_Name_Was_Taken
Summary: A new player has entered the game.
Kudos: 6





	1. Prologue

The tall, menacing building stood proudly above every other building in the bustling urban area.

Hope's Peak Academy. The school for the top students in every field imaginable. The school for the Ultimates. Those who graduate from here are practically set for life.

The only way to enroll here is if you’re scouted by the school itself. You need to meet two qualifications to be accepted into such a prestigious academy:

1\. You have to be attending/going into high school.

2\. You have to be the very best at what you do.

I stared at this building-my new school-with a mix of blinding optimism and gut-wrenching fear. Hope and despair, one could say. My determined smile wouldn't leave my face. I heard a beeping and brought my wrist watch in front of my face. 7:00. I had a bit of time.

I took a deep breath and walked into the main hall. This school-this _world_ -has been my life and focus for a very long time. I couldn’t wait to be back.

The main hall greeted me with familiar pink walls and tall arching columns. The elegant clock in the corner of the hall said that it was 7:10 a.m. The meeting here didn’t start until 8 o’ clock. None of the others were there yet. I decided to use my extra time to walk around the school.

As I took my first step, the hall began to warp and twist. The hall mixed together and melted away like a messed up abstract painting. Spinning, mixing, and melting with me at the epicenter.

I was suddenly hit with an intense, pounding pain in my head. My hands instinctively reached to my eyes. The pounding of my brain only got worse. I tried to open my eyes, but my vision was blurry and when I tried to focus I only got more dizzy, making my pain worse. I covered my eyes again and fell to my knees, then to my side and curled into the fetal position.

Then everything stopped.


	2. Chapter 0-Part 1

I slowly blink my eyes open. The fluorescent lights are almost too much. I raise my head off of the cold, hard surface I was just unconscious on. A long line of drool falls off of my mouth.

The surface in question is a wooden desk you’d find in any high school. Only, this one is made of a good-quality dark wood reserved for the stereotypical fancy desks of high-profile businessmen or politicians.

I raise my head further and take in my surroundings. It has the furniture of a classroom, but the decorations are unlike any school environment I’ve ever been in. Gaudy yellow wallpaper with orange spots, a giant podium in the front with a gold logo on it, a big surveillance camera suspended from the ceiling. But the most glaring features are the windows. They’ve all been bolted over with solid medal plates.

I try to stand on wobbly legs and notice a piece of paper on the desk next to the one I had woken up on. Inspecting it, I discover that it’s a pamphlet written in crayon with crude, child-like writing.

_Hey there new kid!_

_The next semester is about to start._

_Starting today, this school will be your entire world._

Next to the message is a drawing of a city. ‘ _The next semester_... _this school_ …’ I look up to find a clock above an enormous blackboard. 8:05. Shit! I’m late for…what?

What’s going on?

Where am I?

...who am I?

My heart quickens at my sudden realization. I can’t breath. I need to get out of here.

I run, busting out of the heavy door to the classroom into in a magenta hallway. I run a few more steps before I notice someone at the opposite end.

We stare at each other, taking each other in and assessing if we should be afraid or not. They look like they have a masculine build and face, albeit young and innocent. They’re wearing a black jacket over a desaturated green hoodie and bright red shoes. Their hair also betrays their age, dusty brown and very spiky with a prominent strand sticking up. He takes a step forward but I instinctively walk backwards. He puts his hands up in surrender. After a beat, he calls out, “Hey, I’m not gonna hurt you. My name’s Makoto Naegi. I’m just as lost as you are.”

He begins to walk forward again. I want to run away but I fight my instinct and stay frozen. He calls out, “I just woke up in the same room as you. I tried to wake you up, but you were completely knocked out. I was just looking for some help.”

He continues to walk towards me. “I promise I’m not going to hurt you. We’re in the same boat.”

I don’t move, but I let my muscles de-tense. He calls out, “Are you a student at Hope’s Peak Academy also? What’s your name?”

He stops, now only a couple of steps in front of me. I want to answer, but my mind is completely blank. “I...I don’t know.”

“Don’t know what?”

“I-I don’t know who I am. I c-can’t remember anything.”

He’s shocked. Tears well in my eyes. But that name - Hope’s Peak Academy. That name sounds familiar. “H-Hey,” Makoto says, “It’s okay! I’m sure everything’ll be fine! You were pretty unconscious. You might just need some time to fully wake up, I guess?” He tries to give me a comforting smile.

His arms slowly fall to his sides, to a position where he looks like he’ll go in for a hug. Now I can tell that we're about the same height. I still don’t completely trust him, but at the moment, he’s literally all I have. “Hey, if you’re a student at Hope’s Peak, there's a meeting in the main hall at 8 for the incoming students,” he says, “We’re a little late, obviously. Let’s go together! Maybe someone there can tell us who you are?”

I look into his wide, boyish eyes. I can’t find a concrete reason to not trust him. My gut tells me to follow him, that he’s trustworthy. I nod my head.

He smiles a genuine, warm smile that actually gives me comfort. I silently walk next to him down the rest of the magenta hall. He awkwardly asks me, “So you don’t remember anything? Even your Ultimate?”

“My ultimate?”

“Yeah, you know...I mean, I guess you don’t. Sorry. Um, every student who gets accepted into Hope’s Peak Academy has an Ultimate talent or skill. You have to be an ‘Ultimate Somebody’ to come here.”

“Well then, what’s your ‘Ultimate’?” I ask him.

He starts to blush and scratch his head. “Um, well, I…” Exhaling, he turns to me and stops walking. “Look, I was a ‘luck of the draw’ student. My acceptance letter called me the ‘Ultimate Lucky Student’ or something like that.” He gives me an embarrassed smile. “I know it sounds stupid. Please don’t judge?”

I smirk at him. “That’s not that stupid. I’m not judging.”

He chuckles and continues walking, then says, “Thanks.”

We walk through the magenta hallway into a green hallway. Thick yellow lines on the white and black checkerboard floor lead us to a pair of double doors, a green exit sign right above them. We pause for a moment and exchange a look. Makoto takes a deep inhale before opening the doors.


	3. Chapter 0-Part 2

On the other side, we find a room filled with other students and a giant circular hatch covering the back wall. Everyone snaps their heads towards us. “Whoa, hey! More new kids?” a male voice calls out.

Makoto speaks up, “Huh? Then you guys are all…?”

A different voice answers, “Yeah...We’re all new here. Today’s supposed to be our first day of class.”

A higher pitched male voice in the back of the room says, “So counting them, that makes sixteen. I'm pretty sure that’s everyone.”

Makoto sweeps his gaze across the room, briefly trying to take in all of our classmates’ faces. He decides to introduce himself first. “Um...how’s it going? My name’s Makoto Naegi.” He turns towards me, then remembers that I can’t introduce myself. He continues, “Sorry we’re late. We just woke up in a classroom. A bunch of stuff happened, and then all of a sudden I was just...asleep.”

“Whoa, you too?” a guy with dreadlocks asks from the back of the room.

A gothic girl in the middle of the room twirls the end of one of her twin-tails, pondering, “Things just keep getting curiouser and curiouser.”

The same high-pitched male voice, which I can now tell is attatched to a very round boy in glasses, declairs, “So strange...I declare beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is a strange situation indeed!” and points his finger upward.

I decide to speak up and ask the room, “What’s going on?”

“What’s going on is that you’re both very late!” a tall boy in a white uniform yells as he strides up to us. “Surely you were aware the meeting was to start at 8 a.m. sharp! To be tardy on your first day is unspeakable! I must report you, and you must accept your due punishment!”

“What’s your problem?” a very pretty girl with long blond pigtails and freckles asks, “I mean, it’s not like they _wanted_ to be late.”

Another very feminine voice, this time connected to a tan girl in a red jacket, calls out, “Everyone just calm down! Listen, why don’t we all go around and introduce ourselves?”

I just want to shrink away and disappear at the thought of introductions. Makoto glances at me before trying to help. “Um, I-I don’t know if-”

A bulky guy with a giant pompadour at the side of the room interrupts him. “The hell? Now’s no time for friggin’ introductions!”

The gothic girl answers, “Maybe, but it may be good to at least find out who we all are before digging into bigger problems here. I mean, how are we even supposed to talk to each other if we do not know each other’s names?”

“I don’t know _my_ name.”

Everyone turns their attention towards me again. I almost regret speaking up, but trying to introduce myself when I don’t even know who I’d be introducing would certainly be worse than speaking now, in front of everyone. I gather my thoughts and courage and tell them, “I have amnesia. I just woke up completely blank.”

Everyone in the room is silent for a few seconds. Makoto decides to ask the room, “Yeah, um, does anybody recognize her?”

Again, no one says anything for a few seconds. The horrible silence is simultaneously tense and awkward. They've either averted their gazes or stare at me with a mixture of pity and unease. I wish I could melt into the floor. The girl with the blue hair breaks the silence first. “That’s okay. We can all still introduce ourselves, and maybe someone will recognize you while you talk! Sound good?”

The question is directed at the rest of the room more than me, so they agree.

Makoto immediately goes to the blue haired girl. I want to follow him and stick by his side, but I'm frozen in front of the doors. The girl in the red jacket enthusiastically runs up to greet me, waves and says, “Hiya! I’m Aoi Asahina, but you can call Hina! It’s nice to meet ya!”

I wave back cautiously and say, “Nice to meet you too, Hina.”

“I’m sorry I don’t recognize you. I’m normally terrible with names and faces, but you don’t seem familiar at all. Like, not even in the normal ‘Haven’t seen you in a long time’ type of way. Although, if I heard your name that might ring a few bells.”

I chuckle. “Yeah, that might help me out too.”

Her eyes go wide. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry! That was insensitive and-”

“No, no. I’m not upset, I promise,” I interrupt, “I’m sorry, I was trying to lighten the mood or something.” Now I am upset at myself for making her feel bad.

She goes back to smiling and giggles, “It’s all good.” Her reassurance puts me at ease. She straightens her back, proclaiming, “Well, it was nice to meet you! I hope you remember everything soon.”

“Nice to meet you too, Hina,” I tell her. Then she walks up to the tall guy in a white uniform for her next introduction.

An orange haired boy with a goatee walks up to me and nods his head. “Sup! Name’s Leon Kuwata.”

I nod back and notice his blazer. It looks to have been bleached white, added studs and a big safety pin to the collar, and gotten it to stay popped up. “Hi, nice to meet you. I like your jacket.”

“Thanks,” he says as he grabs the sides of his jacket, “it was my old school blazer, but I made a couple of modifications. Nearly gave my councillors a heart attack!” he laughs at the memory.

I laugh a bit too at the image. “Wow, you did that yourself? That’s really cool.”

“Thanks. I wanted to do the rest of my uniform, but then I got accepted to Hope’s Peak. Figured I’d just wait til I got the uniform here and then modify that.”

“Sounds like fun. You think you could do the same to mine?”

His smile widens. “Yeah, totally. I’d love to.”

So does mine. “Cool, thanks.”

He scratches the back of his head and says, “Um, yeah. No problem. Nice to meet you. Good luck with the whole...amnesia thing.”

“Thanks, nice to meet you too. See ya later,” I say as I start to walk away.

“See ya,” he calls back.

I finally leave my post at the doors and make my way into the crowd of my classmates.

I spot a small girl in a long brown skirt and green blouse. She looks shy, and she’s the only person here shorter than me. I walk up to her, wave, and say, “Hey, nice to meet you. What’s your name?” Blushing, intimidated, and says in a quiet voice, “Hello, I’m Chihiro Fujisaki. It’s nice to meet you too…” Her blush deepens as she says, apologetically, “Sorry, I get kinda embarrassed whenever I introduce myself…”

I lightly shake my head. “No problem. I’m sure we’ll get along fine.”

She smiles and her face becomes a bit less red. “You really think so? Thanks.”

“Yeah, no problem."

She's obviously very nervous and introverted. I can feel that she might not want to talk for very long. "See ya later, Chihiro.”

“Goodbye,” she says as she waves to me.

I spot the very tall guy with dreadlocks and walk over to him. He puts his hand up in a half wave and introduces himself, “Hi, I’m Yashuhiro Hagakure. Hiro for short.” He looks at me for a second and says, “Hey, you’re that girl with amnesia, right? I’ll try to help as best I can, but I can really only tell the future. The past is a whole other monster all to itself.”

I tilt my head. “What?”

“I’m the Ultimate Clairvoyant. Other psychics call me ‘Supernova.’ Sorry, forgot you wouldn’t know that.”

I nod my head, playing cool even though I'm pretty shocked. “It’s cool.”

“Don’t worry man. I’m sure your memory will come back in no time. Probably just needs some time to recuperate or whatever. In the meantime, I’d try to enjoy being a blank slate. Nothing to worry about or hold you back.”

“Yeah, I’ll try to think about it like that. Thanks, Hiro.”

He shrugs his shoulders nonchalantly and says, “No problem. Good talking to ya. See you later.”

He walks away and the tall boy in the white uniform replaces him. He exclaims, “I’m Kiyotaka Ishimaru. I believe in bold simplicity! Let’s work together on our educational crusade!” I’m very taken aback by his energy and shouting. He doesn’t seem to notice, instead continuing with, “You may call me Taka. Has anyone been able to tell you your name yet?”

“Not yet, but I’ve only talked with, like, five people.”

“That’s unfortunate! A name can carry so much weight and value to a person, to lose it is a great loss indeed.” I don’t say anything and just nod in agreement. Without missing a beat, Taka continues, “But you must not let this loss hold you back! You must put effort into not just earning your name back, but also earning your reputation. Being accepted into Hope’s Peak Academy is the highest honor a student can receive. You must make sure that once you have your name and identity back, you are still worthy of, if not better than it!”

I stare at him for a moment. “Is this about me being late to the meeting?”

“This is partially about you being late to the meeting!”

I nod my head. “Well, um, thank you, I guess. I’ll keep that in mind. Bye.”

“Goodbye!”

I walk away from him right into the blue haired girl Makoto first went to. “Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you there,” I say to her apologetically.

She giggles and says, “No problem. I’m Sayaka Maizono. It’s nice to meet you!”

“It’s nice to meet you too!” She exudes this very pleasant aura. I feel like I could trust this girl with my life.

Her smile widens and makes me feel happy. “Thanks! Don't worry, I’m very trustworthy!”

“What?” I ask, confused. She looks me in the eye and answers, seriously, “I’m psychic.”

My eyes widen. “What? I-I thought that guy...what?”

She giggles again, “Kidding! I just have really good intuition.”

I just nod my head. That’s some intuition to be able to tell what someone’s thinking. “O-Okay...That’s a...pretty useful skill, I guess?”

“Yeah, especially in my line of work.”

“Really? What do you do?”

“I’m the lead in an international pop group!”

Again, I’m taken aback. I know Makoto said that everyone here is an ‘Ultimate’ something or other, but I wasn’t expecting celebrities. “Wow! That’s amazing.”

She giggles,“Haha, thanks! Hey listen,” she says as she puts her hand on my shoulder, “I’m sure your memory will come back. And if it doesn’t come soon, I’m sure there’ll be someone or something here that can help.” Her words are really comforting. While others have said similar things, her presence and the way she says them makes them feel more authentic and genuine.

“Thank you. That’s really nice to hear. It was good to meet you.”

“Good to meet you too, bye!” She waves at me and walks away. Our conversation left me with a warm, fuzzy feeling.

After Sayaka leaves, I spot the girl with blond pigtails and walk over to her. She waves enthusiastically and greets me with a sing-song voice, “Hi! I’m Junko Enoshima. Charmed, I’m sure!” She has a very beautiful and fun smile.

“Hi Junko. Lovely to meet you.”

“Thanks! What’s your-Oh right! Oh my god, I’m so sorry. I totally forgot you had amnesia!”

I giggle and reassure her, “It’s alright, dude. I’m not offended or anything.”

“Oh my god, thanks, I’m so embarrassed. Anyway, how’re you doing? With the introductions and junk?”

“They’re kind of difficult, especially since I can’t introduce myself. But everyone’s been super nice so far.”

“That’s great! Well, it was cool to meet you anyway.”

“Thanks, it’s cool to meet you too, Junko.”

She puts her hand up and waves to me, walking away and calling in her sing-song voice, “Bye!”

I decide to walk over to the very round boy on the other side of the room. Nodding my head, I ask him, “Hi! What’s your name?”

He bows back, then adjusts his glasses. “I am Hifumi Yamada! It is lovely to make your acquaintance.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Hifumi,” I say. Wonder what his 'Ultimate, is? Shit, I haven't been asking anyone that! Oh well, I can ask Makoto later. Better late than never, I guess. “So, why’d you get accepted to Hope’s Peak?”

He stands up straight, “I am the Ultimate Fanfic Creator! I am the most prolific dojinshi creator in all of Japan!”

That's pretty cool that Hope's Peak would admit that. "Oh, wow really? That's really cool! Um, I guess I’ll see you around?”

“It was nice to meet you, miss. Goodbye!”

I make my way over to a very muscular woman in the back of the room. We bow our heads, and she looks at me up and down. “I am Sakura Ogami,” she tells me in a very low, gruff voice, “Hhmm…”

I suddenly become very self conscious as she begins to lift my arms up and prod at my body. “Your muscular quality is that of an average teenage girl. What a shame. You’re nowhere near fit enough to be my training partner.”

I look down at the pink sweater I now realize I’m wearing. “Oh, I’m sorry...? I’ll try to work out more.”

“You should. You need to take better care of your body. If not to spar, then to at least be able to defend yourself.”

“Yeah, you’re right, thanks. Are you a fighter, Sakura?” That's a stupid question. She's practically built of pure muscle and battle scars, she's obviously a fighter.

She chuckles and says, "Yes, I am the Ultimate Martial Artist."

"That's incredible!" is all I can say. I really hope she doesn't think I'm stupid. "It was nice to meet you. I'll see you later, Sakura!" I say before I can embarrass myself even more.

She smiles and nods once towards me, saying, "You as well."

I walk away towards a blond boy in a casual suit. He crosses his arms as I approach. “Hi. Wh-”

“Name’s Byakuya Togami,” he says, monotone, “You're the one with amnesia, right? Since you can’t introduce yourself, we’re done here.”

I stare at him for a second. “Wow, dude, no need to be such a douche.”

His face turns into a scowl. “I just don’t like to waste my time,” he says as he walks past me.

I just stay frozen where I stand. I honestly have no idea why I just said what I thought so flippantly, but I can't say regret it.

A dainty tap on my shoulder breaks me out of my stupor. Turning around, I find the gothic girl standing with her hands folded in front of her. “I do not think we have been introduced,” she says softly with a European accent, “I am Celestia Ludenberg.”

Her demeanor and my recent encounter leave me almost speechless. “Um...Hi...it’s nice to meet you...Celestia.”

She giggles and says, “I would prefer for you to call me Celeste, if you don’t mind.”

I smile and tell her, “No problem. That’s a really pretty name. Are you German or something?”

She laughs back. “Thank you. I look forward to getting to know you.”

She walks away, leaving me alone again without answering my question, but feeling slightly better than when Byakuya left. I see a very nervous girl with two very long braids and walk up to her. “Hello, what’s your name?”

“I’m T-Toko...Toko Fukawa. N-Not that you’ll r-remember anyway…” she stutters, ringing her hands. She looks more nervous than Chihiro.

“I mean, I know I have amnesia and everything, but I think I’ve been doing good at remembering everyone’s names,” I say playfully, trying to lighten the mood.

“I-I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant that I’m a v-very forgettable person…” she says as she turns her head down.

I put my hand on her shoulder and she instantly snaps her head back to me. “Hey, don’t think like that. You seem really cool.” I assure her, “I promise I’m not going to forget about you anytime soon.”

She looks at my hand, then back to my face. She almost whispers, “Th-Thank you…”

I let go of her as I say, “No problem. It was nice to meet you, Toko.”

“N-Nice to meet you, too…”

I walk towards the back of the room again, and I see the bulky guy with the pompadour leaning against it. I walk up to him and nod my head as I say, “Hey. What’s your name?”

He nods back and says, “Mondo Owada. Nice to meetcha.” He looks at me for a second. “So, you’re the chick with amnesia, huh? You don’t remember anything before you woke up?”

I shake my head. “Nothing.”

“You’ll prolly get better in a few hours. A few of my guys’ve had injuries that cause amnesia, never lasts more than a day.”

“Your guys?”

“Yeah. I’m the leader of the biggest biker gang in Japan.”

Holy fuck. Did he get into this school because of that? “Um, okay...I don’t think I have an injury, though. I haven’t felt any pain yet.”

“Still, by tomorrow you’ll be fine.”

One corner of my mouth turns upward. “Cool, thanks. See ya, Mondo.”

“See ya," he says as I walk away. 

Finally, I find the last person I haven’t talked to yet in front of the entrance to the room, where Makoto and I first came in. I first notice her long lavender hair falling over a deep purple jacket with a popped collar. She gives off the vibe of trying to fall away from the crowd unnoticed. I tentatively go up to her. “Um...hello, what’s your name?”

“...Kyoko Kirigiri,” she says slowly, keeping the same withdrawn expression.

“It’s nice to meet you, Kyoko Kirigiri.”

She’s silent for a moment, looking me up and down. “Likewise.”


	4. Chapter 0-Part 3

Byakuya claps his hands and calls from the center of the room, “Alright you dull-eyed baboons, now's not the time to make friends. We need to get down to business.”

I guess everyone's been introduced to each other. Makoto responds, “Right. I think someone said something about a bigger problem or something? What was that about?”

Sayaka answers, “Makoto...you said 'a bunch of stuff happened' and then you were ‘just asleep,’ right? That's what happened to all of us.”

Makoto's head swivels around to everyone in the room and he exclaims, “What? Seriously?”

Leon steps up to him and explains, “Just after each of us got to the main hall, we lost consciousness. And when we came to, we were somewhere in the school. That’s what happened to you two, right?” and gestures to Makoto and I.

“B-But that’s just…. _weird_! That everyone of us would get knocked out like that…” Makoto trails off.

“Exactly!” Mondo buts in, “That’s why we’re all freakin’ out!”

Taka adds, “And that’s not the only thing. You saw where all the windows in the classes and hallways were, right? They were all covered with a bunch of big metal plates and gates! What’s that about!?”

“Plus," Junko says, "all my stuff’s missing! Even my cell phone!”

Everyone scrambles to check their pockets. Nothing. “Yeah, you’re right,” Chihiro solemnly confirms, “My PDA’s missing, too...”

“And then there’s the main hall here.” Taka explains, pointing to the hatch, “The front exit is completely blocked by this giant metal hatch. But there wasn’t anything like that when I first got here! What’s it doing _here_!?”

I can't imagine anyone would be able to get in or out with that in front of the entrance. Junko tentatively offers, “Maybe we got caught up in some kinda, like, you know... _crime_ or something?”

Leon sharply turns to her. “What, like a kidnapping? You think maybe someone grabbed us and hauled us off and we’re not actually at school?”

I offer up, “Well, if someone’s gonna go to the trouble of covering the windows with metal plates and then knocking us out-”

“Come on, don’t think like that,” Hiro says, trying to keep an even voice, “Cheer up! I bet this is all just part of the school’s orientation procedure. Yeah, I’m sure that’s it! So I’m just gonna take it easy for a little bit.”

“This is going a bit far for an orientation procedure!” I tell him, “Need I remind you, I can’t remember anything?”

Hiro rubs his chin and studies me for a second before responding, “Well...maybe you’re in on it?”

My eyes widen. I can't believe that he would even consider that! Chihiro adds, “You mean...maybe she’s faking it and is actually a part of orientation? To add to the surprise?”

“That’s ridiculous!” I yell, causing Chihiro to flinch. I immediately want to apologize.

Leon speaks up, “I mean, they do have a point. None of us recognize you, so for all we know you could be an actor or something hired by the school.”

I tell him and everyone else, trying and failing to remain calm and keep tears out of my eyes, “I can assure everyone here: I am not faking it! I actually don’t know who I am!”

“I mean, there’s really no way to verify that…” Sayaka says, tilting her head to the side, looking sympathetic.

I feel everyone stare at me as I desperately try to figure out some way to prove my amnesia. I'll never get used to their piercing stares. Honestly, I don't blame them for not believing me. This whole thing is far too insane to be real and I wish I could just say that it's all an act for the opening ceremony.

***Ding Dong, Bing Bong***

A bell sounds, stopping the conversation dead. The monitor above the door comes alive with green static. A silhouette of a bear slowly comes into focus. A high pitched voice comes from the monitor, “Ahem! Testing, testing! Mike check, one two! This is a test of the school broadcast system! Am I on? Can everyone hear me? Okay then!” Whoever's speaking doesn’t seem to realize the situation we’re in. They sound playful and unbothered, more fitting of an elementary school mascot than the environment we’ve woken up in. They continue, “To all incoming students! I would like to begin the entrance ceremony at...right now! Please make your way to the gymnasium at your earliest convenience...That’s all. I’ll be waiting!”

We all stare at the monitor in silence as it turns off. Junko’s the first to break it by asking what we're all thinking. “What. The. _Hell_ was that just now?”

Byakuya walks past Kyoko and me, through the room’s entrance, while saying, “Well then, if you’ll excuse me…”

Junko reaches out and shouts to him, “H-Hey! What, you’re gonna take off just like that!?”

Hiro snaps his fingers and says, “Ohh yeah, now I get it! This whole thing was just to get us all pumped for the entrance ceremony!” He laughs as he walks towards the door. It sounds forced. “Man, thank god it was all a joke. I’d be totally freaked if this was real! Alright, guess I’ll head out, too.” He pats my shoulder as he passes and tells me, “You guys are doing a really cool job. Love the dedication! Can’t wait to see what you got planned next.”

“W-Wait for me!” Chihiro calls and goes after him.

Celeste laughs. “That is that, then. I will see you all there,” she says as she leaves.

Toko, Hifumi, Mondo, Taka, Hina, and Leon quickly leave as well.

The air in the room is cold and heavy with unease. Looking around, I can tell that everyone else still here feels the same. Sayaka breaks the tension, uneasily, “This...this doesn’t seem right.”

“Yeah,” Junko adds, “that announcement was totally weird.”

“Maybe, but just staying put doesn’t mean we’ll be safe,” Kyoko says, surprising me, “Besides, aren’t you guys just a little bit curious to find out what’s going on around here?”

"She's right," I agree, trying to match her determination, "For now, all we can do is go forward and hope for answers."

Sakura steps forward. “If we do not move forward, we learn nothing. The only choice is to push ahead.”

“They said to go to the gym, right?” Makoto asks, also stepping forward.

Everyone heads out past Kyoko and I. The giant metal hatch on the other side of the room and the cameras that flank either side take my attention. I imagine it pulling itself open, revealing the loud, bright world to six silhouettes and if I focus hard enough-

“Hey,” Kyoko’s voice rings, once again surprising me, “We’ve got to go.”

I peel my eyes away from the hatch to turn to face her. “Y-Yeah, I’m coming.”

I quickly walk out the doors and she follows me. We go left, passing pink double doors labeled “Nurses Office” covered in yellow KEEP OUT tape. At the end of the green hall is a yellow hall that begins with a set of stairs blocked off by a metal gate, ending with the doors to the gym. I instinctively grab for Kyoko’s gloved hand as we round the corner.

She looks at our hands in surprise before quickly letting go and moving forward without me. I look at my own hand with the same expression, then follow suit. The gym doors open to a small room with a trophy case and banners on the ceiling. It looks pretty normal at first glance, but upon further inspection, the wallpaper is also a spotty animal print. Another monitor hangs above another set of doors. Junko, Sayaka, and Makoto are still here. Kyoko has her permanently stoic look, but at least she can remain calm, even if only visually.

“I’m totally getting a bad vibe right now," Junko tells us.

“Yeah,” I respond slowly, “I think that’s the general consensus.”


	5. Chapter 0-Part 4

We open both of the doors and go in together. I’m not sure what I expected, but with the exception of the windows being completely closed off by metal coverings, it looks like any normal gym hosting an entrance ceremony. Plastic red chairs are set up in rows in front of the stage, which has a table with a microphone downstage center.

“See?” Hiro motions to the set-up, “Told ya! It’s totally normal entrance ceremony stuff.”

I see Makoto uncomfortably squirm out of the corner of my eye.

“Hey there, howdy, hello! Is everyone here? Good! Then let’s get things rolling!” The voice from the monitor sings out from the stage. Once again, it catches everyone off-guard with its unnatural cheeriness.

A bear hops up from behind the table. A black-and-white spit down the middle _teddy bear_ , half normal, half with a menacing grin and red lightning bolt eye, hops up from behind the table on the stage and sits on it.

“Huh?” Chihiro asks, “A teddy bear?”

“I’m not a teddy bear!” it answers, sounding offended. “I...am...Monokuma! Nice to meet you all!” the bear- Monokuma -tells us, not moving his mouth.

“Wh-? That teddy bear can talk!” Hifumi shouts, putting one of my thoughts into words.

Taka shouts back, “Calm down! I’m sure there’s just a speaker inside it."

“I told you already,” Monokuma says disapprovingly, “I’m not a teddy bear…” He lurches towards Hifumi, exclaiming, “I’m Monokuma! And I’m your headmaster!”

He scurries backwards a few steps in fear, shouting, “Wah! It moved!”

Mondo shoves past Hifumi and tells him, “Seriously man, calm down! It’s prolly just a remote control toy or somethin’.”

Monokuma looks almost dejected. “How dare you compare me to a child’s plaything! You’ve cut me deep. Deeper than the Mariana Trench…” He bounces back to a playful mode and informs us, “My remote control system is so complex, even the folks at NASA can’t recreate or even comprehend it!” He brings one of its arms to the normal side of his mouth, saying in a low volume, “But don’t make me say stuff that might destroy NASA’s dreams. I just couldn’t BEAR that!”

Celeste responds disapprovingly, “‘Bear that? Really? You are...unfortunate.”

Ignoring her comment, his continues, “Now then, moving on! We really must hurry and get started…Everyone, stand at attention and bow!” Monokuma instructs us, miming the actions, “And...good morning!”

“Good morning!!!” Taka shouts as he bows.

Toko grabs her braids and shouts, “You sh-shouldn’t encourage it!”

The bear spreads his arms out to us. “Now then, let us commence with a most noteworthy and memorable entrance ceremony! First, let’s talk a bit about what your school life here will be like.” He begins pacing across the table. “Now make no mistake-you few students, so full of potential, represent the hope of the world. And to protect such splendid hope…” He stops pacing, and turns his wicked grin towards us, “...you will all live a communal life together solely within the confines of this school. Everyone will live in harmony together, and adhere to the rules and regulations of the school.”

Everyone audibly gasps. A few of us turned to each other to exchange looks and comments of bewilderment. Monokuma ignores us, turning so that both sides face the crowd. “Now then, regarding the end date for this communal life…” He sticks his arms out to us again, “There isn’t one! In other words, you’ll all be here until the day you die! Such is the school life you’ve been assigned. But fear not! We have quite an abundant budget, so you won’t lack for any and all of the common conveniences.”

“That’s the least of our worries right now!” Sayaka yells.

“Yeah, what the hell?" Junko yells, crossing her arms, "You’re saying I have to live here forever? You’re screwing with us, right?”

Monokuma viciously turns towards her and yells, “I am not screwing with you! I am no liar, of that you can be 100% sure.”

She jumps and stumbles backward. He calms down a bit and continues, “Oh, and just for your information...you’re completely cut off from the outside world. So you don’t have to worry about that dirty dirty land beyond these walls ever again!”

Makoto cries out, “So all those metal plates all over the school? They’re there to keep us trapped in here?”

He points to the boy and yells, “That’s exactly what they’re there for. No matter how much you may yell and scream for help, help will not come. So with all of that in mind, feel free to live out your life here with reckless abandon!”

“Come on, what the hell is this?” Leon asks, trying to sound unbothered. “I don’t care if the school or whatever else is behind it all, this is just a really bad joke.”

“Yeah!” Mondo angrily adds, “Cut this shit out! It isn’t funny anymore!”

“You keep saying this is a lie, a joke.” Monokuma says, almost disappointed. “A bunch of skeptics, all of you. But I guess you can’t help it, huh? You all grew up in an age where you’re taught to doubt your neighbor. Well, you’ll have plenty of time to find out whether or not what I say is true. And when that time comes, you’ll see with your own eyeballs that I speak the undeniable truth.”

“Having to live here forever would be...quite the problem.” Celeste ponders.

“Come, now. What’s the matter with all of you?” the bear asks, “You all wanted to attend Hope’s Peak Academy, didn’t you? And now, before the entrance ceremony is even finished, you’ve already decided you want to leave? Oh, wait…” It puts its arms up to both sides of its mouth, like it's trying to contain that evil grin, “I guess I did forget to mention one thing. There _is_ one way for you to leave the school…”

Everyone pipes up at that. Toko gasps, “R-Really…?”

He almost sounds giddy. “As headmaster, I’ve crafted a special clause for those of you who would like to leave! As I mentioned, we will rely on a harmonious, communal lifestyle. And if someone were to disrupt that harmony, they and they alone would be allowed to leave the school. That, my students, is the ‘Graduation Clause!’”

He's obviously having fun dragging this out.

“What do you mean by ‘disrupt the harmony’?” Byakuya asks indignantly.

Monokuma laughs, “Puhuhu...Well, you know…” He stares down the center of the gym, and I swear his eyes lock onto mine, “If one person were to murder another…”

“M-Murder!?” I hear Makoto cry. A small inkling of a thought grabs my attention.

“Stabbing, strangling, bludgeoning, crushing, hacking, drowning, igniting, how you do it doesn’t matter,” the bear prattles on, “You must kill someone if you want to leave. It’s as simple as that. The rest is up to you. Give it your all to achieve the best outcome in the worst way possible!”

A heavy tension descended upon the gym. But I can only focus on the nagging thought in the back of my mind: _There_ is _another way out_. It’s not a hopelessly optimistic thought or one that proves I’m in denial. It's some inherent knowledge. I know it as well as I know how to walk. I know there’s a way out, and Monokuma knows that I know.

“Puhuhu,” he laughs again, “I bet that got your brain juices flowing, huh? Like I said before, you guys are the hope of the world. But taking that hope and seeing it get murdered creates this darkened shadow of despair.” He holds its belly and throws his head back in a show of amusement. “And I just find that so. Darn. _Exciting_!”

“What the hell are you talking about!?” Leon shouts. “Killing each other is...is…”

Monokuma turns his head to the side in mock confusion. “Killing each other is killing each other. I’m sure there’s a dictionary here somewhere if you need it.”

Hina shouts, “We know what it means, that’s not the problem! Why do we have to kill each other!?”

“Yeah!” Hifumi adds, “Stop blabbering on with all this nonsense! Just let us go home already!”

“...Blabbering?” Monokuma gets very still. Then, slowly leaning forward, “Blabbering, blabbering, what do you mean blabbering!? Stop blabbering on about blabbering on!” He’s leaned forward so much he's practically off the stage. “You guys just don’t get it, do you? ‘Let us go, let us go!’ You keep saying the same thing over and over and over and over! Listen. From this moment on, this school is your home, your life, your world. And you can kill as much as you wanna kill! So go ahead, go on a kill-kill- _killing_ _spree_!”

Hiro sighs, “Alright, come on...How long you gonna keep this up?”

“Eh?” Monokuma asks as he tilts his head.

Hiro puts his hands up in mock surrender. “You got us, okay? You scared the hell out of us.” He motions to me and the bear. “So you guys can go ahead and reveal the trick now.”

“Reveal the trick?” He asks, mocking his hand movements.

“Yeah, cuz I mean...Y’know, this is all some kinda trick and all, right? So uh, like-”

“Dude, shut the hell up and get outta my way,” Mondo says through gritted teeth as he shoves past Hiro. He puts his face right in front of Monokuma, to the point that his hair is touching the bear’s forehead. “Listen up, asshole! This shit’s gone way too far! What the hell kinda joke _is_ this!?”

“Joke?” he asks, pointing to Mondo’s pompadour, “What, you mean like your hair?”

He suddenly lunges and grabs Monokuma, the booming sound startling most of us. He holds the bear at arm's length above the gym floor and storms to the center of the room. He growls, “Gotcha, you little piece of shit! I dunno if you’re a toy or a stuffed animal or whatever the hell! Either way, I’m gonna rip you to fuckin’ shreds!”

Monokuma waves his arms and legs frantically. “Wah! Violence against the headmaster is in violation of school regulations!” He actually sounds scared.

“Shut the fuck up! Let me outta here, or I swear to Christ-”

Then Monokuma just... goes limp. A slow beeping begins to emanate from his body. The inaction makes Mondo stop in his tracks. “What, no smartass comeback this time!?” he asks, fear creeping into his voice.

The beeping gradually gets faster. “Stop that goddamn beeping and SAY SOMETHING!”

The beeping only gets faster. “Get rid of it!” Kyoko yells.

Faster. Mondo turns to her, surprised.

Faster. “Hurry up and throw it!”

Faster. Without another thought, Mondo throws the bear above him.

***KABOOM***

As soon as he does, it explodes. My hands reach to protect my head and ears from debris as they begin ringing. The pieces fall to the floor of the gym in a smoking heap. “The hell!?” Mondo says, “Th-That sure as shit wasn’t a joke. It blew the hell up…”

“But you know…” Chihiro quietly says, “This means that the teddy bear’s been destroyed, right?”

“I told you, I’m not a teddy bear! I’m Monokuma!” The cheery voice calls from behind the table. Once again, the bear pops up from behind the table and sits, as if nothing happened. Of course it wouldn’t be that easy.

“There’s another one!?” Leon shouts in disbelief.

Mondo’s pissed. “You son of a bitch! You seriously tried to kill me just now!”

Monokuma’s red eye glows as it addresses Mondo. “Of course. You did violate one of the school regulations, after all. I’ll let you off with a warning this time, but you’d better be careful from now on. Any naughty boy or girl who violates my rules won’t get off with just a little swat on the butt.”

Junko asks what we’re all thinking again. “H-Hey, so does this mean there’s like, a bunch more of you around somewhere?”

“Monokumas have been placed all throughout the school, yes.” He nods approvingly at her question. “Plus, don’t forget the surveillance cameras installed everywhere. And if you’re caught breaking any rules, well...you all just saw what happened, right? Puhuhu...And I won’t be so forgiving with my punishment next time!”

Hina responds, “Th-That’s not even punishment. That’s just...wrong…”

He ignores her, continuing with the ‘entrance ceremony’. “Now then, to commemorate your joyous entry into our school, I have a little something for you…” He pulls a small tablet from behind, gesturing like it’s some big prize. “This is our official student handbook! Pretty cool, huh? As you can see, it’s fully digital. So naturally, we call it…” he moves the tablet in front of his stomach and holds it to the crowd, “The e-Handbook!” He looks around, expecting some reaction from us. After he doesn’t get one, the bear continues his spiel and passes them out, “Ahem. Yes, moving on...This handbook is absolutely vital to a healthy school life, so don’t lose it! When you start it up, it will display your name, so always make sure you have the right one!”

I can’t help but perk up. In a second, I’ll finally know who I am! Monokuma continues (something about them being indestructible) but I only hear my pulse quicken in my ears. My name might even help me regain other memories! I take the handbook greedily. The key to my identity...right in my hands.

And yet, my hands shake and my stomach plummets as I think of turning it on.

Monokuma mentions school regulations, and that calls my interest. We can’t exactly tempt fate after witnessing one blow up, can we? He’s intensely staring at all of us (as intensely as a teddy bear can) and speaks in a chastising tone. “You’ll hear me say this a lot, but any violation of school regulations will not be tolerated. Rules restrict, yes, but they also protect. Society, for example, would be utter chaos without laws. The same thing applies here! Which is why it’s crucial we have strict punishments in place for violators.” He returns to its out-of-place cheeriness and plops back on the table. “Okay, well, that brings our entrance ceremony to a close! Please enjoy your abundantly dreary school life! And...see ya!” He hops behind the table and disappears.

We’re all in shock, letting Monokuma’s words sink in. In the excitement of getting my identity back, I had completely forgotten about the ‘Graduation Clause.' The realization makes my blood run cold. But I know that’s not the only way to get out of here…

Taka clears his throat to break the tension first. “So, guys...How would you define what we just experienced?”

Leon, ignoring Taka, stammers, “How-? Why-? I don’t understand any of this…”

“We have to l-live here forever…?” Toko says, pulling on her braids, “Or...k-kill? Wh-What…? What just happened!?”

“Everyone, we need to just calm down,” Kyoko says, taking charge, “First, like Taka said, let’s just take a second to summarize everything we just heard. Based on what Monokuma said, we essentially have two choices.” She holds up one finger, “One: we each stay here, living a ‘communal life’ until the day we die,” she holds up her second finger, “Two: if we want to get out of here…”

“To get out alive, we have to kill someone, correct?” Celeste finishes for her.

Chihiro speaks up, on the verge of tears, “But...killing someone...That’s…”

Hifumi interrupts her, saying, “We were abducted out of nowhere and stuffed into this place meant to look like a school. And now we’re supposed to start killing each other? This is…this is just...What IS this!?”

“A lie, is what it is,” Taka answers confidently, “All these ridiculous things we’ve heard...This all has to be fake!”

Byakuya scoffs. “Right now it doesn’t really matter if it’s real or fake. What matters, is there anyone here who’s seriously considering all this?”

Nobody responds.

I look down at the handbook’s screen. The face that stares back is one I don’t recognize.

I quickly turn my attention back to my classmates. We all stare across the room at each other. We know what we’re all thinking. The hostility hangs thick in the air.

We’re all trying to gauge two things about each other:

1\. Who could actually kill someone?

2\. If it came to it, who could I kill?

The name grows more and more ironic with each passing second.

Hope’s Peak Academy is not a school to build the hope of the world.

It is a mind game meant to foster despair within each of us.


	6. Chapter 1: To Survive-Part 1

_You must kill someone if you want to leave._

The thought hangs heavy in the air, making it difficult to breathe.

I stare at this group of people around me. Some of them bug-eyed, frantically swiveling their heads around the room; some of them trying to keep their anger at bay, sizing everyone else up; some of them holding themselves, on the very brink of tears; somehow, Celeste, Byakuya, and Kyoko are actually managing to stay calm. I’ve haven’t even known them for a full day, but one of them could end up taking my life. Or, I could end up- _no!_ I can’t think like that. There is another way. I don’t know how I know, how we’ll do it, or where it even comes from, but I won’t give up on the idea of escape.

I swallow hard and take a deep breath, trying to push out the despair Monokuma has left. I won’t give in, no matter what this death game throws at me.

Her monotone voice cuts through the defining silence. “So? What are you going to do now?” Kyoko questions everyone, “Just stand around glaring at each other?”

Taka straightens himself and nods in agreement. “R-Right...She’s right! Sometimes, even when you’re nervous or afraid, you just have to step forward! To forget such a simple…I'm so ashamed.” He balls his fists and his voice goes from his normal loud to a full on shout, “I can’t forgive myself! Please, somebody hit me! Punish me!”

Mondo, to his side, rolls his eyes and tells him, “Jesus, dude, calm down. If you have time to yell about it, you have time to do something about it.”

Hifumi adds, “Perhaps, but...what is the mission, exactly?”

Leon rolls his eyes and responds, “To look for a way out, duh!”

“And we totally need to find whoever was controlling that stupid bear and beat the hell out of ‘em,” Junko shouts.

Chihiro meekly speaks up, “...B-But before we do all that, maybe we should take a look at the handbook.”

Makoto perks up and turns around to face me. “Yeah! And, now we’ll finally know your name!”

Everyone looks at me and I feel like I could collapse into myself. Goddamn it, Makoto. “Yeah, you’re right,” Leon says, “Go on, open it up and tell us!”

“O-Okay,” I say as I bring out my handbook. My hands shake so hard, I’m afraid of dropping it. The black screen reflects a terrified face. Taking in a slow breath, I finally turn my handbook on.

I’m greeted with the school crest, a pen and lightning bolt crossed inside of a crest under a small crown. Then a name pops up:

**Yuna Namiki**

…

_I feel nothing._

I remember everyone looking at me, and let go of a breath that I didn’t realize I had been holding. “M-my n-name…” I begin, but I tighten my grip on the handbook and swallow whatever fear I have. “My name is Yuna Namiki.”

Makoto gives me a friendly smile, puts a hand on my shoulder, and cheers, “Alright, Yuna! Glad to meet you!”

Hina asks, with the best of intentions, “Can you remember anything else now?”

I look back at the- _my_ name staring back at me and half-heartedly answer, “No, nothing at all, sorry…”

“It’s alright” Makoto says, “Your memory will be back soon! This is just the first step!”

I look up to see his ever-hopeful expression, lightening my mood once again. I hope he’s right.

Then I remember everyone else in the room. Not wanting them to look at me anymore, I say, “We should check out the regulations Monokuma mentioned.”

“True,” Celeste agrees, “If we stumble around with no clue what the rules are, who knows what could happen? I, personally, do not want to blow up anytime soon.”

Mondo swears under his breath as we open the regulations on our tablets. There are seven in total, the last one leaving room for more to be added. We can’t leave the school, but we can explore it freely. Nighttime is from 10 to 7, and we have to sleep in the dorms. We can’t harm Monokuma or the cameras. But rule number 6-

“This is bullshit!” Mondo suddenly yells. “The hell kinda rules are these!? I’m not gonna let them control _me_!”

Celeste giggles. “Surely even a muscle head such as yourself couldn't have forgotten the last few minutes already? Or do you just wish to have an absolutely pointless death?”

Mondo pauses for a second. He brings the handbook up from his side and speaks more to himself than us, “I...Ever since I was a kid, I grew up with my older brother pounding this into my head: ‘When a man makes a promise, he has to keep it, even if it kills him.’”

“...So what?” Junko asks.

“I’ve made a ton of promises that I still have to keep, that’s ‘so what’!” He pointedly answers her. “So I can’t afford to die in here!”

Celeste twirls the end of one of her twin-tails with her finger, saying offhandedly, “None of that made much sense to me, but you are saying you will follow the regulations, is that it?”

“Huh? Oh, well...yeah, I guess you’re right.” Mondo nervously scratches the back of his head.

“Hey, um...I have a question,” Sayaka pipes up as she slightly raises her hand, “For regulation number six, what do you think it means exactly?”

“You’re talking about the ‘unless they are discovered’ bit, right?” Makoto asks. I guess we were all thinking the same thing.

Byakuya answers, “It’s saying that if you want to graduate, you have to kill someone without anyone finding out it was you.”

“B-But why? Why do we h-have to do that?” Toko stutters.

Byakuya shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t see any reason to worry about it. Just worry about following the rules as they’ve been explained to us.” He lifts his chin up and looks down at her. “Frankly, I don’t want to hear anything from someone who waits for others to decide what to do for them.”

Toko blushes and rings her hands. “D-Don’t jab at me…”

“More like a full-on stab…” Leon mumbles, a suspicious glare flying at Byakuya.

Hina holds out her arms and addresses everyone with determination, “Well for now, let’s forget all that silly junk about murderers or whatever. Now that we know the rules, let’s start exploring the school!”

Taka takes this opportunity to try and be a leader again, “True! We need to find out where exactly we are, if there’s a way out, and about food and supplies.”

“Damn straight!” Leon exclaims back. “Okay, then let’s all start looking around.”

“I’ll be going alone.” Byakuya announces, already walking towards the doors.

Junko takes a few steps towards him, asking, “What? Why? That’s a pretty stupid idea, don’t you think?”

He turns his head towards her, not breaking stride. “Someone here might already have started thinking about murdering one of us. Are you saying we should stand around with them in our midst and make it that much easier for them?”

“W-Wait, hold on a second,” Sayaka says as she also takes a few steps towards him, “That would never-”

“Don’t bother saying it couldn’t happen.” He stops walking, turning to face her. “You can’t deny the possibility. That’s why you all seized up with fear when that graduation rule was made clear to you.” He looks around at everyone. He chuckles, only the corner of his mouth moving upwards. “Am I wrong?”

I’m shocked he was able to say it out loud, let alone not break once. He takes everyone’s silence as conformation. “So, I’m simply acting in accordance with what I think is best for me,” he says as he continues to walk to the doors.

Mondo walks in front of him. “Hold on! Like hell I’m gonna let you run off and do whatever you want!”

“Out of my way, plankton,” Byakuya orders in the way only the snobbiest of people can do.

Mondo’s both angered and confused by Byakuya’s odd insult. “Wh-!? The fuck’s that supposed to mean!?”

Byakuya crosses his arms and condescendingly looks up to Mondo’s eyes. Even though he’s slightly shorter, Byakuya’s aura of ‘rich bastard’ figuratively pulls him to Mondo’s eyes. “One tiny plankton, drifting across the sea. So minuscule, so insignificant, they couldn’t possibly have any kind of influence on the boundless ocean.”

Even though it’s incredibly melodramatic and pompous, the insult still manages to rile Mondo up. He yells right in Byakuya’s face, “I’m gonna kick your ass!”

Makoto runs in between the two, trying to break them up, “S-Stop it! We shouldn't fight!”

_Mondo punches the smaller boy, knocking him out._

Wait, what?

But this only succeeds in turning Mondo’s aggression from Byakuya to Makoto. “The fuck you just say? You some kinda goody-goody little bitch?” He yells as he pushes Makoto back. “Who do you think you are, talkin’ to me like that? You think you’re my fuckin’ dad or something!?”

“N-No, I wasn’t-!” Makoto puts his hands out in surrender. In a second he’ll be out cold.

“Fuck you!” Mondo bursts, accompanied by the horrible *WHAM* of his fist hitting Makoto’s head.

The boy is flown back, crashing into the chairs meant for the entrance ceremony. Sayaka, Junko, and I immediately rush to his side. Sayaka brushes his hair off his face to asses the area where he was punched, a bruise quickly forming. He flinches on reflex. Junko puts her fingures on his neck to take his pulse. His eyes roll back before closing completely and his breath deepens. If he’s not out cold now, he will be soon. I sharply turn to face Mondo. “What the hell?” I yell at him in bewilderment, “You knocked him out!”

“I didn’t mean to,” he says while cracking his knuckles, “I just...got caught up in the moment.”

“You could’ve killed him!” Sayaka wails.

“Hey, come on. Even I’m not that strong. He’ll be fine, dude just needs an ice bag or somethin’.”

“The nurse’s office is completely blocked off,” I say as I stand, “We passed it on the way here. Unless you can pull one out of your ass-”

“Hey, come on guys,” Leon says as he puts an arm around my shoulders and the other out to Mondo. “This is still a big fancy school building. I’m sure the kitchen has a freezer with something to help him.”

He's right. We all need to calm down. Getting angry and violent is exactly what they what from us.

Celeste speaks up, “Now would be a good time to explore our new environment. I propose we split up into groups, so that it will be much more difficult for anyone with nefarious intentions.”

Taka adds, “Right, and afterwards, we can all meet up and discuss what we’ve found.”

“Great idea,” Hina states, “Sakura and Mondo, you’re with me. We’re gonna go to the main hall and try to open that hatch!”

Sakura nods slowly and turns to Mondo. “We’re perhaps the two strongest people here. If we can’t open it, there’s very little chance anyone can.”

He doesn't say anything, opting to just nod and follow the girls. As they exit the gym, Sayaka stands up and calls out, “Um, hey Mondo? Could you guys maybe carry Makoto to a safer place?”

“Yeah, sure. No problem,” he answers as he comes back. He picks up Makoto with ease and tosses him over his shoulder. “Careful!” Sayaka exclaims.

With Makoto over his shoulders like a small sack of potatoes, Mondo, Sakura, and Hina all leave together. Taka comes up beside Byakuya, clapping him on the shoulder, and announces to the room, “Byakuya and I will search the hotel area together!”

Byakuya stares at him annoyed for a moment, before shrugging his hand off and telling him, “As I said, I will be working alone. I couldn’t possibly care less about whatever you decide to do.”

“Hang on,” Hiro asks, “Don’t you want someone to be with you for, like, protection or whatever?”

“No,” he responds without stopping or turning, “I prefer to work alone than with any of you. Not to mention, if everyone else is in a group, that should be just as safe.”

He leaves the gym, and Taka announces before he leaves, “Then...I will just search the hotel area by myself!”

Kyoko turns to the rest of us, before walking out herself, “I’ll be going alone as well.”

Leon turns to Sayaka, Junko, and I, asking, “So, you guys wanna check the windows and shit? See if there’s any way to get the metal plates off?”

I smile and nod my head a couple of times. “Yeah, good idea.”

"I'm in. Though, I'm pretty sure a group of three is plenty, so..." Junko jumps in, pointedly turning towards Sayaka.

"That's alright," the blue-haired girl say, smiling sweetly and giggling, "I don't thing that I would be much help in that regard anyway. I might try to find a way to talk to the outside..."

"Great! Later. Come on guys," Junko says quickly and struts towards the exit, hips swaying like a runway model.

We begin to follow, but Leon realizes that his arm is still around me and retracts it, embarrassed. He brings that hand to scratch the back of his neck as he mumbles, “Haha, sorry…”

I chuckle and ahead a couple of steps to keep up with Junko. Leon follows and we leave the gym and trophy room. And I thank my lucky stars that I got grouped with my two most attractive classmates.


	7. Chapter 1: To Survive-Part 2

We enter the yellow hallway and I point to the gate in front of the stairs and ask, “Hey, wanna check that out?” 

They both agree and we pull and pull on the gate with all of our collective strength. We pull and we pull and we pull and we even try pushing it...and nothing. It doesn’t budge a centimeter. 

"Well...it was worth a try," I say, flexing the ache out of my fingers.

Junko scoffs. "Whatever. Let's just keep going. We've got a shit ton of windows to check out."

"She's kinda intense, huh?" Leon asks, low enough that she can't hear him as she struts away.

I chuckle and follow Junko. "Don't fall in love too soon."

He pauses before scrambling to follow us into the green hall.

Then we try to pry the metal plates off the windows. And we try to pull the gates on the stairways open. We find and try to open every window and gate we can find in the school area. We pull them from every angle, try to unscrew the nuts and bolts, hit them with anything we can find, and pull at them again for good measure. Nothing works. None of them budge or dent or even loosen. Then we do the same thing in the "hotel" area. We do the same thing over and over again and, surprise, we get no where. Hours of going back and forth, taking breaks whenever our poor fingers and hands can’t take it anymore, pointless. With every unsuccessful tug and pull, I feel more and more air get stuck in my throat. There’s nothing we can do. We’re really stuck in here. 

_No_. I _cannot_ think like that. There’s a way out, I just know it. I can’t let an inconvenience like this give them the despair they want. I can’t give up. 

The last gate we try to open is in front of the second floor of the dorms. Again, nothing, but I refuse to let that stop me. I take a deep breath and cross my arms. “Okay,” I address to myself more than Junko and Leon, “Um...this is fine. This just means that we can’t escape through the windows. And, I mean, that’s far too obvious anyway, so that makes sense.”

“You’re right,” Leon says, pounding his fist against his palm, “The windows and stairs being duds doesn’t mean we’re all outta luck, just means it’s actually a challenge!”

Junko sighs, checking each of her nails for a break or chip. "Whatever you have to tell yourselves." She brings her attention up to us, "Since we're done here, let's find the others."

"Hey, come on," Leon says, holding his hands out, "We're right here, might as well check out our rooms, right?"

"We might be here a while, might as well get to know the place we'll be staying," I agree with him.

Junko looks from me to him and back, then starts walking. "Okay, if you two say so."

We follow her and go down a completely red hallway and find a bunch of doors with plaques on them. Each plaque has someone’s name and picture. “So I guess these are our rooms, huh,” Leon asks as I stand in front of Kyoko and Makoto’s doors. 

“Yeah, I guess….”

Makoto Naeigi. Kyoko Kirigiri. Some random kid plucked off the street, and a girl who radiates intrigue. Somehow, they both ended up in the same place. Makoto is safe, normal, an open book. You could ask him about his darkest secrets and he'd struggle to come up with even one. Kyoko is...guarded, reserved, always thinking. I'll probably never understand what's going on in her mind. But I hope that one day, she might trust me enough to give me a glimpse-

A hand on my back snaps me out of my own head, accompanied by Leon saying, “Come on, let's find our rooms.”

Junko's already walking inside hers, right next to Celeste's room. I follow him down the hall where his room is, in between Sakura's and Hiro's. He goes inside while I go left and find my room on the other side of Celeste. I study the plaque that reads ‘Yuna’ with a sprite above it. It’s wearing a large button-up sweater over a grey collared shirt and black tie, and dark grey skirt that stops just above the knee and white knee-high socks, just like me. I bring my hand up to open the door handle, but it shake as a pit in my stomach grows. My hand retracts to hold my abdomen. I won’t go in just yet. It'll all be too real once I go inside.

The sound of a door opening breaks my trance. Leon walks out of his room, so I put on a smile and interlock my fingers behind my back, asking him, “How’s yours?”

“Windows are blocked, and they don’t budge either. Other than that, it’s alright. Most of my stuff’s in there, minus my phone and laptop. I really just gave it a once-over and got my key,” He brings a hand out of his pants pocket to show me a key and key chain that says ‘L. Kuwata.’

“Yeah, me too. I forgot to get my key, though.” I fake a giggle and gesture towards my room. “Anyway, let's get going!” I say as I turn the other way. I hear him laugh and comes up next to me.

I sprint into the nearest door without thinking or really looking. And I almost run into another metal gate. Leon quickly follows behind me. I ask him, “Wanna try?”

He looks at the gate and answers, “Can’t hurt. Wanna go get Junko?”

I tilt my head to the side. "I don't think she likes helping us very much."

We both laugh and wordlessly understand that we're gonna try this without her, just this one time.

We try in vain to open it, but just like every other window and gate in this place, it doesn’t even budge. I hang my head in frustration for a moment and find a hatch with a lock. “Hey, what about this,” I say as I stomp on it and listen to a long, metallic echo. “Can’t open it obviously, but where do you think it goes?”

“Considering this is the trash room, I don’t think I wanna know.” I didn’t even notice that this was the trash room. I nod slowly. “Yeah, good point. That echo didn’t sound pleasant, either.”

He swings his head towards the door, saying, “Lets get outta here.”

I nod and follow him into the hallway, where we’re greeted by Taka coming out of the dorms. “Ah, Leon and...Yuna? Did you two go together, alone?”

“Well, Junko was just with us, but she wanted to check out her room, so...,” I rush out.

His eyes scan us both before he says, “Alright, well, if you’re done with...whatever you were doing, come to the dining hall. That’s where we’re meeting.”

Leon responds, “Cool, we’ll be there in a minute.” I nod in agreement.

Taka straightens his already immaculate uniform, says, “I will see you then,” and walks away.

I turn around to face Leon and tell him, “Let's just head straight to the dining hall. Junko might be mad at us for ditching her.”

He smiles playfully. “Yeah, you’re right. Hey listen,” he says, and his smile becomes more sincere, “We’re like, right across from each other. If you ever need anything, don’t hesitate to knock on my door, okay?”

I return the sincerity. “Okay. Same goes for you. Seriously, anything, just ask.”

He exhales a laugh, saying, “I’ll keep that in mind. Come on, let's head to the dining hall.”

***beep beep beep***

Before we can begin walking, we hear a small beeping coming from my wrist. Bringing it up and pulling my sleeve back, I find a small black wrist watch with an analogue clock that reads 7:00. I instinctively press a button on the side and the beeping stops. “Hey, what time did we leave the gym?”

His fingers play with his goatee, saying, “Not sure. I don’t remember seeing a clock in the gym or anything.”

I nod and begin walking down the hall. If we left the gym this morning, then Makoto got knocked out a few _hours_ ago. I hope he’s okay. We walk side by side in silence when a question comes to mind. “Sorry, I forgot to ask earlier: what’s your ‘Ultimate?’”

He laughs and runs a hand through his hair. “I’m actually the Ultimate Baseball Player.”

My eyes go wide. “Really? I would not have guessed that.”

He laughs again. “Why? Am I not the perfect picture of athleticism?”

“Well, if someone were to ask me to describe the ‘Ultimate Baseball Star,’ I wouldn’t picture someone with a goatee or a labret piercing.”

At this, he sticks out and points to his tongue, which has a metallic ball on it, “I got my tongue done, too!”

I giggle, and Leon continues, “To be honest, I don’t really like baseball. I really want to work my way out and establish myself as a musician.”

“That’s awesome! Do you play, or are you more of a singer?”

He replies, excited, “I’m mainly a singer, but I’m also learning to play guitar.”

I giggle again. “That’s really cool!” God I'm stupid. Why I can't think of anything to say than some variation of 'Wow, that's cool'?

Before we know it, we’ve come upon the dining room entrance, saving me from sounding like even more of a dumbass. Walking in, we see almost everyone all standing around a big table in the center of the room, including Makoto. He’s looking much better, and the bruise that I saw forming on the side of his head is barely noticeable. I’ll have to talk to him later. Right now, we need to know what everyone's found out.


	8. Chapter 1: To Survive-Part 3

“Okay! It looks like everyone’s here. I declare that the first session of the Hope’s Peak Academy briefing meetings has begun!” Taka begins once everyone has found a place to sit around the biggest table in the dining hall. “Let’s all go around and share what we found out during our respective investigations! The sooner we find out what’s going on, the sooner we can get out of here!”

“Wait, hold on a sec!” Junko stands, her head swiveling around the room. “What about...what’s her name? The silver-haired girl? Oh yeah, Kyoko!”

Taka’s brow furrows in confusion. “...What about her?”

She gestures around the table, “She’s not here.”

My blood runs cold and the air runs stale. Taka’s taken aback and starts a headcount. A few others ask if anyone’s seen her, but we all just shake our heads. Damn it, we only just got here. She can’t be...No one here could’ve...Why did she have to go alone?

Taka slams the table with his palm. “Well, we’ll just have to start without her. Being late on the first day is absolutely unacceptable!”

We mostly settle into uneasy silence. Junko sits back down in her chair next to mine, crossing her arms and trying to keep cool. We’ll just have to either hope she turns up or go look for her after our meeting. Taka clears his throat and points to the group as he names them. “Mondo, Hina, Sakura. You three went off first. How was the hatch in the main hall?”

Sakura gravely answers, her voice lower than usual, “Even with all of our strengths combined, we made no progress in getting it opened.”

“We hit it with desks, chairs, nothin’ worked!” Mondo adds, obviously frustrated. “It was hard as, like, metal!”

Celeste condescendingly tilts her head and replies, “Well, it is a giant metal hatch…” 

Mondo scratches the back of his neck. “Anyway, if we’re going to get outta here, it’s not gonna be through there.”

Sakura continues, “After we left the main hall, we discovered that in both the school and dorm areas, there was a set of stairs leading up to another floor.”

“But there were gates there, and we couldn’t find any way to open them, so we couldn’t check it out,” Hina jumps in.

Leon holds his hand up, “Yeah, me, Yuna, and Junko checked those out too while we checked out the windows. There’s also one in the trash room. We couldn’t find a way to open any of them. The windows are total duds, too.”

“In other words,” Sakura continues, “at this point, we are confined to the first floor.”

Hina buries her face in her hands. “God, I feel like I could just cry…” then she snaps her head up and balls her fist, “No, I have to hold it in! I have to manage my hydration.”

Sakura says, “Perhaps there is a way out on the 2nd floor, or even on one above it, and that’s why they’ve trapped us on this floor.”

Somehow, I’m not entirely sure about that theory.

“You’ve all done a great job,” Taka motions to all six of us, then directs himself to Byakuya, who I’m just now realizing is at another table, Toko standing at the other side, “Byakuya, what do you have to report?”

He turns his head towards Taka. “I wanted to try and find some clue as to who’s responsible for imprisoning us here, but unfortunately I made no such discoveries.” He turns his head back around.

“...Really?” Taka asks, “That’s it?”

Without looking at him, Byakuya retorts, “If I’d uncovered anything, naturally I would have more to say. But I didn’t. So I don’t.” He practically spits those last words.

So, instead of going with someone else and bouncing ideas or observations around, he gave into his own arrogance, possibly risked his life, and came back with nothing to show. I can’t help but roll my eyes. Taka is noticeably shaken by his rudeness. “R-Right, understood.” He claps his hands and straightens his posture even further, if that's even possible. “Anyway, I spent some time looking around the dormitory and discovered that there is exactly one room for each person, and that each room has already been assigned via name plates and keychains attached to that room’s key.”

“And Chihiro, Hiro, and I found out that each room is completely soundproof,” Sayaka adds.

Chihiro quietly mutters, “Your next-door neighbor could scream their lungs out, and you wouldn’t hear a thing…”

How morbid for someone so small and cute…

Sayaka adds, “They also have their own bathrooms, but it looks like only the girls’ have locks.” I notice Makoto out of the corner of my eye take on a look of confusion before shaking it off and returning to the conversation.

Mondo speaks up, “Okay, so they got a bunch of rooms ready for us. They’re assuming we’re gonna be here a while.”

“Better to have than have not!” Taka interjects. “At least we don’t have to worry about surviving like wild animals.”

Toko asks him, “Th-That can’t be all you have to report M-Mr. Honor Student?”

He looks at her for a moment. “That’s all for my report! Who’s next?”

Sayaka raises her hand, “Chihiro, Hiro, and I also tried to find a way to communicate with the outside. But we couldn’t find any phones or computers or anything!”

“This school has been totally cut off…” Chihiro says, tears welling in her eyes.

“God, this totally sucks,” Junko says, propping her head on her hands, “What the hell are we going to do!?” I feel an urge to put a comforting hand on her back, rub up and down and tell her everything will be alright.

Hiro's voice interrupts my thought. “On the bright side, the food’s not going to run out anytime soon.”

"How do you know that?" Junko asks him.

Sayaka excitedly answers, "Hiro was hungry, so we went to the kitchen. It's overflowing with all kinds of ingredients! And Monokuma said that it gets restocked at the end of the day!" 

Junko's head swiftly turns towards her. “You saw him!?”

Hiro shrugs his shoulders. “Yeah, he just appeared, told us that, and disappeared. Then I got an apple and we left."

Junko rubs her temples while Chihiro explains, “He just appeared out of no where, and disappeared just as quickly. A weaponized toy that can just appear at any time...I can’t tell if we’re supposed to be afraid or not…”

Hina asks him, “But are you guys okay? He didn’t try to like, eat you or anything?”

Hiro's expression grows confused and he scratches his chin hairs. “No, we were in a kitchen full of food. If he wanted to eat, he could’ve just fixed himself something.”

“Do you not realize we’re prisoners here!? We could all die any second!” Junko suddenly stands again and shouts.

Mondo quickly stands as well. “She’s right! We can’t be screwing around right now. We gotta do somethin’, or-”

“You’re all spending an awful lot of time yelling and carrying on,” her voice cuts through the tension, silencing Mondo. We all turn towards the doors to the dining hall to find Kyoko standing there, as alive and mysterious as ever. A weight lifts itself off of my back and I can't help but smile. She looks around at everyone at the tables. “Do you really think you can afford to do so? Have none of you accepted the reality of the situation?”

As she walks up to us, Taka points at her and exclaims, “Kyoko! Where have you been!? We already started the meeting without you!”

She ignores him, instead placing a piece of paper in the center of the table. Everyone stands to get a closer look, even Byakuya and Toko. The majority of the paper is taken up by an outline of a school floor plan, with rooms labeled ‘Gym’ and ‘Classroom’. Makoto asks her, “What is this?”

“It appears to be a map of Hope’s Peak Academy,” she replies curtly.

“A map…?” he questions.

I pipe up, “It looks like it matches the school area.”

“Exactly,” she says to me. I feel myself involuntarily smile and blush at her approval.

“So that means...” Makoto says slowly, “this really is Hope’s Peak.”

“At least in terms of construction, yes,” she answers, “But it seems to have had a number of strange...renovations.”

“Renovations?” I ask her.

“I don’t know all the details yet. All I found was details about the first floor.”

Chihiro's meek voice shakes as she asks, “So we didn’t get kidnapped and taken to some other place? This really is Hope’s Peak?”

Hina asks, “But then...where are all the students?”

Hiro holds out a hand to her and says, “Hey, come on. Let's stop talking about all this negative stuff, y’know.”

“How are you so calm right now?” Makoto asks him with an undertone of anger.

“I mean, the people in charge of Hope’s Peak obviously put this together. There’s totally nothing to stress about, right Yuna?” He says, then turns and gestures towards me. “We just gotta chill and everything’ll work itself out.”

I almost yell at him myself before Toko suddenly bursts, “S-So that’s it? Looking around was a t-total waste of time!? We d-didn’t find a way out or w-who’s behind this or w-what’s even going on!?”

Celeste laughs and asks her, “How is that not crystal clear to you? “ She suddenly gets very intense, leaning forward and folding her hands in front of her. “We have been imprisoned in a secret location with no way of escape.”

Except there is. We just don’t know what it is yet.

No one else has a response. Everyone averts our eyes away from Celeste and our new reality that we’re just not ready to accept. Toko shakes and rings her hands. “You d-didn’t have to s-say that. I w-was trying not t-to think about it…” She holds her head in both her hands and breathes heavily. “We’re t-trapped here. What are w-we supposed to do?”

“It’s very simple,” Byakuya answers her, “If you want to leave, you just have to kill-”

“Don’t even joke about that!” Junko interrupts him.

“Please, just calm down,” Sayaka asks, holding her hands out in front of her, “We need to figure out what we’re going to do from here, and will never do that if we’re just yelling at each other.”

Leon nods his head in agreeance. “She’s right. There’s gotta be something we can do.”

Celeste resumes her default regal stance. “All we can do for now is adapt to our new life here. Survival does not come down to speed or strength. It comes down to adaptability. Those who can adapt always come out on top, and as someone who has come out on top more than once, I have a suggestion.” She folds her hands under her chin. “Since we’re going to be trapped here for a while, and thus spending the night here, I propose we add our own rule: going out at nighttime should be prohibited.”

Toko lifts her head, eyes wide. “W-Why?”

“To alleviate many of our fears and anxieties. Nighttime is the most obvious time to try and kill. If we are constantly worrying about something like that night after night, it will wear us down in no time.” She pauses for a moment to allow us to think about her suggestion. “Of course, unlike the other rules, nobody would be forced to comply. We would all have to agree to follow it.”

Junko slowly shakes her head. “Yeah, I can agree to it.” She turns her head to the rest of us. “She’s right. We’re going to self-destruct without a rule like that.”

Taka declares, “On behalf of all men here, I agree to comply!”

Leon wips to face him and says defiantly, “Woah, hey, you can’t decide to speak for all of us.”

Celeste giggles. “So everyone is in agreement? Good. Now, if you’ll excuse me…” She walks away towards the door, telling us, “It is almost nighttime. I would like to take a shower before it arrives. Goodbye.”

Once she leaves, Hifumi says, “S-So I guess it’s pretty obvious where we go from here. We really will be spending the night, I guess.”

“Adaptability…” Sakura says quietly, more to herself than anyone else.

Junko turns towards Taka, hand on her hip. “So, Mr. Chairman, what next? One person already left.”

He clears his throat and straightens his still immaculate uniform. “Ahem, um...What say we call an end to today’s meeting? Like she said, it’s almost nighttime anyway. We can reconvene first thing tomorrow morning!”

“Do we really have to stay the night here?” Chihiro asks him, shaking.

Junko answers the smaller girl, “We don’t have a choice. We can’t go for long without getting some sleep, y’know?”

Mondo sighs and hangs his head. “So we have to just give up…”

“But w-what are we going t-to do tomorrow?” Toko asks.

Sakura says, “Our only option is to split up and look around again, and let everyone know if we find anything.”

Hina nods her head vigorously, “Yeah, okay. Let’s do that!”

Junko twirls the end of her pigtail, saying, “Then we’re officially done for today? Good, I’m exhausted."

Everyone leaves and heads to our rooms with heavy steps, more mentally exhausted than physically. I just walk without thinking, but halfway down the hallway I remember I wanted to talk to Makoto. I turn around sharply in time to watch him enter his room at the front of the hallway, next to Kyoko. I really don’t want to enter my room just yet. My feet carry me on a sprint in front of his doorway. I quickly knock on his door before I lose my nerve, interlocking my fingers behind my back and shift my weight from one foot to another. It's only a few seconds but they drag on, letting me think about just turning back and going to my room.

Makoto slowly opens the door as wide as his body. “Oh, hey Yuna!”

“Hey,” I say back, “I just wanted to check on you. You got punched pretty hard and you were knocked out for a while. I wanted to see how you were doing.”

“Oh, thanks,” he says while smiling awkwardly and putting a hand to the side of his head where there should be a bruise, “I’m doing a lot better now. Thanks for checking.”

I force a smile as well, saying, “That’s great! You’re really lucky after a punch like that!”

He laughs awkwardly, “Yeah. I mean, that’s why I’m here, isn’t it?”

I laugh awkwardly back. “Right! ‘Ultimate Lucky Student!’” Then, surprising us both, I ask, “Can I come in?”

He’s taken aback, then opens his door wider while saying, “Uh, yeah, sure.”

I mumble an awkward, “Thanks,” while entering his room and keeping my head down.

I stop in the center of the room, at the foot of a double bed. The first thing I notice are the windows: blocked off by metal plates with giant bolts, just like everywhere else. My fingers hurt just looking at them. Trying to put that out of my mind, I turn to face Makoto, who’s standing beside a wooden dresser. We stand in silence for a few seconds. You could cut the awkwardness with a pair of scissors. He finally talks first. “So...what did you want to...talk about?”

I squeeze each on my fingers behind my back, letting words stumble out of my mouth without thinking, “Um, well...during our introductions, I forgot to ask a lot of people about their Ultimate talents-I mean I know a few of them but I was wondering if maybe you could tell me...about the rest?”

He quickly nods and replies, “Yes, I can definitely help with that! I actually did a lot of research before coming here!” He pauses as soon as he says that, eyes going wide. He brings his hands in front of him, stammering, “I-I mean, um...That makes me sound weird. Um, I j-just wanted to know who my classmates were and I found a bunch of forums and discussion boards-”

I force out a smile again, trying to ease his nerves. “Great! Let’s get started,” Then I get an idea, “Do you have a pen and paper?”

His brow furrows in confusion. “Huh? Why?”

“So we can make a couple of lists," I tell him, holding up one finger, then two, "One, everyone else's talents, and two, my potential talent. It might not be much, but at least it’ll be a start!”

He nods, “Okay, good idea,” some stability finally in his voice. He points behind me and says, “There’s a notebook and pencil on the desk, next to the bed.”

I follow his finger and take a seat in the chair in front of the desk. Makoto cautiously sits on the side of the bed in front of me. I take the blue notebook and pencil, cross one leg over the other to write on, and begin the brainstorming, writing down everyone’s names and the Ultimates that I know. “Okay. I know yours, Hiro’s, Hifumi’s, Sakura’s, and Leon’s. That leaves Hina, Chihiro, Toko, Taka, Sayaka, Junko, Byakuya, Celeste, Mondo, and Kyoko.”

He goes over them all, each one more unbelievable than the last. Ultimate Swimmer, Ultimate Programer, Ultimate Writer, Ultimate Moral Compass, Ultimate Pop Sensation, Ultimate Fashionista, Ultimate Affluent Progeny, Ultimate Gambler, Ultimate Biker Gang Leader. They’ve all accomplished so much. I can’t believe that we’re describing high school students, let alone our classmates. Makoto and I seem so...normal. And yet we were accepted here, at this school for the absolute best.

What the hell did _I_ do to get here?

I write down all of their names in one column and titles right next to them. But there’s one person that Makoto didn’t talk about. “What about Kyoko?”

He brings his eyes from the paper up to mine and responds, “Huh? Kyoko? Well, to be honest, I don’t know anything about her. I didn’t see her name anywhere online and she totally shut me down when I was introducing myself to her.”

I’m not that surprised. She seemed pretty distant when I introduced myself and during the meeting in the dining hall. I wonder...“Hhm...what if she’s like me?”

He leans forward, elbows on his knees. “What do you mean?”

“What if she has amnesia? And she can’t remember her Ultimate, like me?”

He thinks about it for a second. “But she knew her name before we got the handbooks. Though, I guess she might not have complete amnesia, like you do.”

My head slowly nods. “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking...But she probably won't tell us anything any time soon. She doesn’t seem like the type that’ll open up easily. Anyway,” I straighten in my seat and turn to a new page and write ‘Possible Ultimates for Yuna’ at the top, “Let's get started on the hardest part: figuring out my Ultimate Talent!”

He chuckles as I hand him the notebook and pencil. I stand up and step behind the chair, flexing and stretching my fingers before leaning on the back of the chair. “Okay,” he begins, “Can you...think of any activity you’re particularly drawn to?”

I sigh, “Not really. But it’s definitely not related to strength. Sakura said it herself: I have the muscle quality of an 'average teenage girl.'”

He laughs. “She said the same thing to me!” His cheeks turn pink in embarrassment as he realizes what he said. “E-Except she said ‘average teenage boy,’ obviously...” he says and nervously laughs.

I laugh as well, but this time it’s completely natural. “Anyway, back to the task at hand,” I say and clap my hands once.

“Right!” He agrees. “Uh...maybe something to do with makeup or hair or something?”

I tilt my head to the side. “Why? Cause I’m a girl?”

His eyes widen. “N-No! It’s just cause you look very, um-”

My giggle cuts him off. “It's okay, Makoto! I was just kidding.” He chuckles and calms down a bit. To ease his nerves, I say, “Hey, they weren’t bad ideas. Let's write them down. 'Ultimate Makeup Artist' or 'Ultimate Hair Dresser!'” He nods and writes them down. I hold the top of the chair again and rhythmically drum my fingers against it. “It’s a start…”

He stares at my fingers drumming away on the chair, then suggests, “Maybe you’re the...Ultimate Musician or something...”

I shake my head. “No, that’s Ibuki.”

We both stop dead in our tracks. My heart falls to the bottom of my stomach and my breath gets caught in my throat, my mind going completely blank. Makoto slowly looks up at me and says, “You’re right...Now that you mention it, I think I remember hearing about Ibuki Mioda getting accepted to Hope’s Peak. But...how did you know that?”

I look from him to the paper and back and shake my head vigorously, panic building. “I don’t know...I didn’t until right now. I don’t even know what she looks like or where that name came from or why I’d know she’s the Ultimate Musician or-”

“Hey, hey,” he says calmly, standing up, pushing the chair aside, and putting his hands on my shoulders, “Hey, it’s okay. It’s great actually-or, it could be great! Your memory might be coming back!”

His boyish face radiates optimism. Looking at this hopeful smile, I can’t help but believe in him. I throw my arms around his neck and bury my face in his shoulder. He hesitantly wraps his arms around my back. I squeeze tight, whispering, “I hope you’re right.”

He lets me hold him for a few moments, occasionally rubbing my back. I finally let go, slowly, calmly. “Thanks. I’m gonna go to my room. Maybe we can continue this tomorrow?”

He cocks a smile and says, “Yeah, sure. Whenever you want. Goodnight, Yuna.”

I return his small smile. “Goodnight, Makoto.”

I exit his room without looking back, take a deep breath, and walk down the hall. I turn my head to the ground, desperately trying to not think about...anything, really. Of course everything makes its way into my head all at once. My classmates, Hope’s Peak, the ‘Graduation Clause,’ escape, my missing life-none of it feels real. Before I know it, I’m in front of the door with my name on it. I know I can’t put it off any longer, but I still don’t want to go in. He did say if I needed anything…

It's almost nighttime and we barely know each other. I can’t ask that. I just need to bite the bullet and go in and shower and sleep and hope that this is all a nightmare I’ll wake up from. Before I can lose my nerves again, my hand grasps the handle, pulls down, and rips the door open. I run in and practically slam the door shut with both hands. I lean forward, focusing on the feeling of the cool wooden door against my forehead, calming my racing heart and deepening my breaths.

After what feels like a few minutes of this meditation, I turn my back to the door and survey the room I’ll be staying in. It looks almost exactly like Makoto’s, except my bed is pink and his is blue (because girl vs boy or whatever). My eyes automatically squeeze shut and turn away at the sight of the metal plated windows. Opening them slowly, I find a key with a keychain that reads ‘Y. Namiki’ on a circular table. Above the dresser is a piece of paper titled ‘Announcement from Headmaster Monokuma’ that lays out information about each room. As a girl, mine comes with a sewing kit and a lock on the bathroom door.

I crumple it up and throw it in my trash bin.

I just want a shower.

The harsh hot water messages my skin as it washes away the events of the day. I just stand there, letting it burn and not thinking about anything except the sounds of the water hitting glass. Not Hope’s Peak, not the ‘Graduation Rule,’ not Monokuma, not the punch I somehow knew was going to happen, not my missing memories, not ‘Ibuki Mioda’, not anything except the hot water on my body and the loud, soothing sounds echoing around me. Nothing. Eventually, my skin gets used to the temperature and I take that as my signal to end my shower. Drying myself and my hair with the towel provided proves to be very annoying, as it's about as thin as a piece of paper but less absorbent. I do what I can to get as dry as I can and get dressed, not really paying attention. I walk out of the bathroom and straight to the bed, falling face-first into the blanket.

***Ding Dong, Bing Bong***

The monitor on the wall buzzes to life. Green static fades away to reveal Monokuma surrounded by monitors. His annoyingly happy tone announces, “Ahem. This is a school announcement. It is now 10 p.m. As such, it is officially nighttime. Soon the doors to the dining hall will be locked, and entry at that point is strictly prohibited. Okay then, sweet dreams everyone! Goodnight, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite…”

The monitor shuts off, and I turn my attention towards the camera suspended next to the bed. The thought of someone watching me sleep makes my stomach churn.

And I can’t do anything about it.

I pull myself under the covers and turn my back to it. Out of sight out of mind, right? My head hits the pillow and my eyes close, hoping and wishing I’ll wake up and this whole thing will be just a terrible dream.


	9. Monokuma Theatre

'Why you?' you may ask.

Simple: you loved them, all of them.

You were obsessed!

This was your whole world.

It was all so wonderful and pitiful, I had to give you what you wanted!

Getting even more personal, building your own relationships...

And then watching them murder each other in cold blood...

Oh the sweet sweet _sweet_ despair!

How could I not?

To watch your hope be dashed right before your very eyes in real time!?

I could cry!

It’s all just so…

Horrible!!!

Wonderful!!!

I could drop dead right here right now!

But then...we wouldn't have a grand finale, now would we?


	10. To Survive: Daily Life-Part 1

***Ding Dong, Bing Bong***

The monitor crackles with green static before the “headmaster” comes on screen. _“Good morning everyone! It is now 7 a.m.! Time to rise and shi-ine! Get ready to greet another bee-yutiful day!”_

I didn’t get my wish.

I didn’t even get to dream that I did.

***beep beep beep***

My attention’s drawn to a small sound from the bathroom, where I was apparently so tired I left the door open. Upon further investigation, I find my wristwatch on the sink along with a headband the same pale pink as my sweater that I also abandoned last night. I guess I won't really need the watch anymore if that announcement is going to be made every morning.

_Stop._

There is a way out.

Pessimism isn’t going to help anyone.

I get dressed in a daze fueled by fatigue and hunger. Every time my stomach rumbles, I’m reminded that I haven’t eaten since I got here. It's only been a day, but I'm running on empty. I actively avoid looking at my unfamiliar face and try to brush long curly brown hair with my fingers and put on the headband. As soon as I’m done, my feet carry me outside of the room, almost running straight into Taka.

“Good morning, Yuna!” the moral compass loudly greets. Well, more 'proclaim' than 'greet'.

How the hell can someone have this much energy in the morning? “M-Morning, Taka.”

“I trust you slept well?”

“Like the dead.”

My whole body freezes as I realize what I said. That’s a really shitty thing to say in our situation. Taka’s unfazed, however, replying with, “That’s excellent! A good night’s sleep combined with a nutritionally balanced meal will ensure that you are perfectly prepared to handle whatever the day throws at you!”

“Uh, yeah. I was just heading to the dining hall. Guess I’ll see you there?” As if on queue, my stomach grumbles.

He smiles widely and puts his hands on his hips. “Absolutely! As soon as I make sure everyone else has woken up before too long!”

“Great, later,” I say as I wave and walk past. He bids me goodbye but I don’t really pay attention. I just want food.

As I walk into the dining hall, I find Hina, Sakura, Chihiro, Junko, and Celeste all sitting at the largest table in the centre of the room. Hina’s chatting energetically while Sakura smiles sweetly at her. The last two definitely aren’t paying that much attention, as evidenced by them playing with their nails and nodding every now and then. Hina notices me at the door and waves, calling, “Hey, Yuna! Come sit with us!”

I gladly stride over to them and take a seat next to Hina, in front of Junko, my face heating up at the sight of the fashionista's pale grey eyes following me. I can barely greet the rest of the girls before the swimmer takes my hands in hers and says, “So?”

My heart falls. Her hands are soft and warm and her smile shines expectantly. She could probably light up an entire room with that smile. I know exactly what she’s asking, but I don’t want it to leave her face. Feigning ignorance, I ask back, “So...what?”

“Your memories, duh! Anything new?”

Everyone looks at me expectedly. You’d think I’d be used to my classmates looking at me like this by now. Should I tell them about knowing the Ultimate Musician's name? No, it might not mean anything. Not to mention it would be really difficult to explain and they probably wouldn’t think too much of it. I hang my head and answer, “No. Nothing. Sorry…”

Hina’s smile falls from excitement to comfort and she squeezes my hands. “That’s okay! We’ll figure something out. Or maybe just you need more time? Either way, we won’t rest until you have your memories back!” She lets go of my hands and grabs her jacket collar, turning to the other four at the table. “Right guys?”

Chihiro enthusiastically nods her head while Celeste tilts her head towards Hina. “Do you have any ideas about how we could do that?”

Hina’s smile falls completely and her brows raise. “I don’t know...I was just-Oh, wait!” She bounces in her seat, eyes going wide. “When I was in middle school, I did a report about how some therapists use hypnosis to help patients with memory loss! Maybe we can try that?”

“Do you know anything about hypnotism?” Chihiro asks, putting a finger on her chin.

“Isn’t Hiro into all of that mystical junk?” Junko asks, waving a perfectly manicured hand dismissively, “He might know how to do something like that.”

I shrug my shoulders. “Could be worth a shot.”

Celeste giggles. “You would really trust that buffoon with your own psyche? You’re more likely to cluck like a chicken for the rest of your life than get your memories back with someone like him.”

Junko and I chuckle involuntarily, my blush deepening. “I mean, you’re not wrong, but it’s the only idea we have right now."

“Why not try saying various words or phrases?” Chihiro offers.

“That could work,” Sakura nods slowly, “Something is bound to trigger an emotional response or memory eventually.”

Junko rolls her eyes. “You wanna read her the dictionary or something? Just waiting around like that could take days! _At least_!”

“Do you have a better idea?” Hina asks, clearly defensive.

The fashionista shrugs her shoulders. “I don’t know. Why don’t you try hitting your head?”

“What!?” My eyes widen at her nonchalant tone.

Hina’s also taken aback. “Yeah, what do you mean? How could that possibly help?”

“If her amnesia is caused by an injury, maybe another injury will like, cancel it out or whatever?”

“That’s not how head injuries work!” Hina yells.

“I’m sure you two know plenty about that…” Celeste says as she folds her hands in front of her, eyeing Hina and Sakura.

Hina slams her hands on the table. “What’s that supposed to mean!?”

“This has been very helpful, you guys,” I say quickly standing up, “But I’m really hungry, so I think I’m going to get some breakfast.” Again, I feel my empty stomach calling for food.

“No need,” Celeste holds her hand out to stop me, “Hifumi is cooking for us this morning.”

“Hifumi?” I ask as I sit back down.

Junko answers me, “Yeah. Celeste and I just said that we were starving and he was more than happy to offer.”

“Men like him always are. Oh, speak of the devil and he shall appear.” Celeste’s hand sweeps towards the kitchen door, where Hifumi exits holding four plates.

“Breakfast for Miss Ludenberg, Miss Enoshima, Miss Asahina, and Miss Ogami,” he calls as he sets the plates in front of each of them. “Oh, I see that Miss Fujisaki and Miss Namiki have joined us. I’ll go make your plates right now.”

Hina’s face lights up at the sight of delicious-looking food. “Thank you so much Hifumi! This all looks amazing!”

It may not be restaurant quality, but this morning’s meal definitely would not be out of place in an elderly woman’s kitchen on a weekend morning. “Thanks, Hifumi! This is so...unexpected!”

“What? Did you think I sustained myself entirely on cheap ramen and energy drinks?”

My hands shoot up in front of me and I quickly blurt out, “N-No, I was just surprised that anyone would want to cook for everyone!”

He chuckles and pushes his glasses up his nose with his middle finger. “I have a lot of surprises up my sleeves, Miss Namiki.”

He heads back to the kitchen and I turn to the other girls. Celeste sighs and muses, “He is a lot to handle, but he’s proving to be useful.”

Junko swallows some egg, then says, “I mean, it’s not the best breakfast I’ve ever had, but I could totally get used to eating like this.”

The doors to the dining hall slam open, announcing the entrance of our resident dread-locked clairvoyant. “Mornin’ everyone! What’s up?”

“Hiro, do you know anything about hypnotism?” Hina quickly asks, mouth half full of rice.

He rubs the stubble on his chin, trying to dig into his head for an answer. “I think my mom and I watched a show about it one time. Why?”

Chihiro replies, “We were talking about ways to revive Yuna’s memories, and we thought you might be able to help.”

“What’re you talking about,” he asks, chuckling and putting his hands on his hips, “She’s probably fine, remember? Probably just an actor hired by the school to make this whole thing more convincing.”

I let out a frustrated sigh. I don't have the energy for this bullshit this early. “You’re still on about that? I swear I’m not faking this.”

He just shrugs his shoulders. “I’m still convinced that this is all just a prank put on by the school. By the way, what’s for breakfast? Looks pretty good.” I don’t think he really does believe that. But I guess it’s better to live in denial than be excited or actively planning in our current situation.

“Hifumi made it,” Celeste answers, “He’s currently in the kitchen making more plates. He’ll be out in a moment.”

The doors slam open again, now announcing the arrival of Taka, Mondo, and Leon. The corners of my mouth turn up at the sight of the red head. The moral compass is currently in the middle of lecturing Mondo, “-there are plenty of other words you could use!”

“Look,” the biker says as he puts a hand on his chest, “They’re just words. It’s how I fucking talk. It’s no. Big. Deal.”

“Swearing is not welcomed in a school environment!”

Mondo just rolls his eyes. “This ain’t exactly a normal school environment.”

“Hey guys!” Leon puts his arms around the two before Taka can respond. “Look, breakfast! I’m starving, let's eat!”

They walk over to the table, and all of the guys take a seat, Leon right next to me. My face heats at his sudden closeness. I hope my blush isn’t too noticeable. “So,” he asks, leaning back in his chair and gesturing to the girls’ food, “Where’d all this come from?”

This time, Junko answers. “Hifumi. IHe’s not a bad chef, it's pretty good.”

As if on cue, he exits the kitchen, once again, carrying four plates full of food. “I know I heard more voices.” He places the plates in front of us as he calls out our names, “Here we are Miss Namiki, Miss Fujisaki, Mister Hagakure, and Mister Kuwata.” He sighs dramatically and turns back to the kitchen, “I’ll be back with Mister Ishimaru and Mister Owada’s breakfast.”

Those of us with food thank him and happily dig in. I’m barely tasting it with how fast I scarf it down. I could feel my stomach growling, but I hadn't realized exactly how much I wanted to eat until now. Obviously, I can’t remember the last time I had eaten, but my stomach is very grateful to make up for lost time.

“Hey, Yuna,” Leon’s voice breaks my concentration, and my face burns at how feral I must look. “Anything new on the memory front?”

My stomach drops for the second time this morning. I know I should probably get used to that question, it just sucks having to explain that I’m still as blank as ever. “Nope. Nothing yet.”

“Damn. I’m sorry, that must really suck,” he says apologetically.

“It’s okay,” I try to sound as sincere and cheery as possible, “We were actually trying to come up with other ways to jog my memory before you guys came in!”

The corners of his mouth turn up. “Well, if I think of anything myself, I’ll let you know!”

“Thanks,” I giggle like a school girl with a fucking crush (which I guess I am...), “That would be really appreciated!”

I wolf down the rest of my breakfast, occasionally catching snippets of everyone else’s banter and chiming in through mouthfuls of food. We laugh and we argue and we eat together. Makoto, Sayaka, Toko, Byakuya, and Kyoko never show up, unfortunately. But even with their noticeable absences, as far as ways to begin this new school life, it's difficult to imagine a better one than this.

After breakfast, I head to my room and realize that I have a lot of free time. Might as well look around instead of just sitting here all day. I wonder around the hotel area a bit until I run into Leon and ask him to hang out.

“Sure! Sounds like fun!...You’re not trying to get me alone to kill me, right? Haha…”

We walk around the school together, sometimes in silence, sometimes talking. It’s not that awkward, but it’s not entirely comfortable either, so I decide to start a conversation. “So...what kind of music do you wanna play?”

His face lightens up as he starts explaining. “Punk rock, definitely! Think The Damned, The Clash, The Sex Pistols…" He stops walking, curls his hands into fists in front of him, "God, just thinking about it gets my blood pumping, y’know? I feel like you could conquer the world through punk music!” He stops, his giant grin and hands falling as he turns to face the camera on the other side of the hall. “But I guess that’s gonna be put on hold for a while…while we’re trapped here in this stupid fucking school...” His face scrunches up as he throws his fist and it connects to the nearest wall. “It’s not fair! Let me outta here!”

“Woah woah woah!” I put my hands in front of him, trying to keep my voice even, “Calm down. We’re gonna get out of here soon!”

He leans his back against the wall, shaking out the hand that had just punched it, still scowling. “You think so?”

“Absolutely!” Gotta think of something to calm him down. “E-Even if it takes a while, getting angry and violent is exactly what they want. And we can’t let ourselves give into their stupid game!”

He looks at my determined face for a moment, probably realizing that it’s very forced. Then his brow finally relaxes and the corner of his mouth turns upward. “You’re right. After all, what kinda punk would I be if I just let The Man get me down at the smallest inconveniences?”

I smile and giggle, though I’m not sure this qualifies as ‘the smallest inconvenience.’ My hands move behind my back and I pull at each of my fingers. "Hey, Leon, promise me something?"

He pushes himself off the wall. "Hm? What's up"

"Whenever we get out of here, save me a ticket for your first gig?" I pull at my fingers behind my back, butterflies flying in my stomach.

His face lights up and he starts to bounce on his toes. “No problem! Damn, now I’m actually excited! We should hang out more often.”

My face heats up even more. I must be redder than his hair by now. “Hey, you coming?” he calls out from a few steps ahead.

“Y-Yeah, sorry!” I answer and scramble to his side.

We continue our walk around the school, much less awkward and easier to talk than when we started.

After our walk, I head back to my room. I still have some time left in the day, and I really don’t just want to spend it sulking in my room. Instead, I head to the cafeteria where I find Junko sitting at a table and painting her nails, so I ask if she wants to hang out.

“Huh? Oh, sure. I guess I can hang with you.”

So we sit together in the cafeteria, waiting for the polish on her nails to dry.

…

...god this is awkward.

How do you even talk to someone so beautiful? My fingers begin to tap on the table. “Um...so, what do you like to...do for fun...normally?”

She looks up at me through thick, curled-to-perfection eyelashes. “Mainly hang out with friends, go shopping, see movies. Y’know, normal things?”

I rapidly nod my head, feeling heat quickly rush to my face. “Right..right…”

Her eyes turn back to her wet nails. “To be honest...I actually get super bored super easily.”

My head tilts to the side. “Oh? Really?”

“Yeah, like...don’t get me wrong, I love all of those things, but they just get so boring. And like, I don’t know, I’ve had a really interesting life, but I still get so bored with everything!”

I can’t even begin to imagine the kind of life the Ultimate Fashionista would lead. “Well...maybe that’s the reason why you get so bored? Because you’ve had such an interesting life that everything seems dull in comparison?”

She looks at me for a moment before turning her eyes to the side, “Yeah...something like that.”

We sit in silence for a bit again, growing ever more awkward with every passing second. My tapping gets faster and faster. Shit, I’ve gotta say something! “I can’t imagine you’ll be that bored right now in our current situation!”

Her head rolls to one side, one of her strawberry blond pigtails almost falling over her pouting face. “You’d think. But we have so much free time, it just makes me even more bored than usual!” Her suddenly brow furrows and her mouth screws up. Her fingers almost scrunch up to make fists, but uncurl due to the still-wet nail polish. “Ugh! This is so lame! Like, why the hell would anyone do something like this to a bunch of teenagers!?” She turns to the nearest camera and shouts, “You hear that, whoever’s watching us right now!? What the fuck is wrong with you!?”

She slumps back against her chair and sighs, careful to keep her hands on the table. “Whatever. Not like they care anyway.”

Slightly embarrassed that I’m about to make this offer, I say, “Hey, um, if you ever need someone to vent to during all that free time, you can always come to me..”

Her eyebrows shoot upwards in surprise. “Really? I might take you up on that offer sometime…”

“Really!?” Now it’s my turn to be surprised.

“Yeah. I like hanging out with you. I haven’t really gotten bored this entire time.”

I feel a deep blush creeping up on my face. “Th-Thanks, Junko! And you don’t even need to just vent or anything! We can just talk or do our nails or makeup, or anything you want!” I need to stop talking.

She chuckles, putting me a bit at ease. “That sounds really nice. We totally need to hang out more!” She brings her hands up to get a closer look at her nails. “Looks like they’re all done! Thanks for keeping me distracted, Yuna!” She stands up from her chair and flashes me a peace sign, practically singing, “Byy-eee!” as she struts out of the dining hall.

After a while, I head back to my room, by myself.

***beep beep beep***

7 pm on the dot, according to my watch. There's still a few of hours before nighttime. I wonder if Makoto' still in his room? We still haven't figured out what my Ultimate is, and we haven't seen each other all day. Even if he doesn't want to talk tonight, it couldn't hurt to just check up on him. I make my way over to his room, excitement building in my chest. Having a friend like Makoto in this situation could be very comforting. He might not be the smartest or most clever person here, but he's defiantly the most optimistic and hopeful. With him, I feel like it might actually be possible that the two of us will figure out my Ultimate.

I press his doorbell and interlace my fingers behind my back. While waiting, my eyes wonder over to Kyoko's door. I bet she could really help us out. She could probably just look at me and know exactly what my Ultimate is. Maybe I should ask if she'd like to help out?

The door opening in front of my interrupts my idea. "Oh, hey Yuna," Makoto greets me with a surprised smile.

"Hey Makoto! How've you been?" This time, I'm not nearly as nervous or awkward or fake cheery. It's really nice.

He's much more relaxed this time as well. "I've been good! Well, I mean, as good as I can be right now," he says, ending with a small chuckle.

With a small chuckle of my own, I reply, "Yeah, I totally get that. So...do you wanna try to come up with more possible Ultimates?"

He nods his head enthusiastically and open the door much wider. "Yeah, come on in!" He sweeps his arm towards the inside of his room, which I follow happily. 

"Do you still have the list?" I ask as I sit on the chair in front of the desk. 

"Oh, yeah. It's right over here." He grabs the blue notebook from the circular table and holds it up, then opens it and turns the pages. "I thought about making another list after you left. For the ones that we know you aren't, like 'Ultimate Musician' or anyone that's already here."

I nod my head enthusiastically. "That's a great idea, Makoto!" I hold my hand out to take the notebook and pencil, which he swiftly hands over. I write 'Not Yuna's Ultimate' on the top and list out the ones we know. "Okay, so we know that I'm not the Ultimate Musician or anything that has to do with strength..."

"Well, it's a start!" he says, bringing a hand to his chin, "I think you might have something to do with music, though. You're really rhythmic when you're taping your fingers."

"Okay, I'll write that down." I turn the page to the other list and write 'Something with music (?)'. That brings our number of possibilities up to three(ish), but that's more than nothing. We have some impossibilities, so...that's good, I guess? As I turn my head up to talk to him, a shiny gold sword on his dresser catches my attention. I vaguely gesture towards it with the pencil and ask him, "Hey...what's that?"

"Huh? Oh, that?" He turns to where the pencil's pointing at the only decoration I could be pointing at. "Sayaka wanted to get some stuff for self defense, so we went to the gym and she insisted I take that with me. I don't really know how useful it would be in a fight since it's just a replica, but it's kinda comforting to have around."

"That's a smart idea!" Getting a weapon for self defense, even if it's just decorative, is a really good idea. I might have to try and find one for myself. "Plus, someone might see it and get scared enough not to mess with you!"

"Heh, glad you understand," he says as he scratches the back of his head. "Anyway, your Ultimate," he says as he takes a seat in front of me on the bed.

And so, we go back and fourth throwing out different ideas and writing them down. We both agree to start with artsy fields and come up with possibilities like Ultimate Painter/Artist, Ultimate Florist, Ultimate Photographer, Ultimate Seamstress, and Ultimate Drummer. "Okay," I say as I lean back in my chair, "We can test some of these out tomorrow. I have a sewing kit in my room, and I'm sure we could find some better paper for sketching in one of the classrooms." 

"Great," Makoto says, slightly groggy as he pulls his arms behind his back to stretch them out, "This was some great progress. We've got a proper list now! We'll figure out your talent in no time, I'm sure of it!"

I stare at the longer list of possibilities and get an idea. "Hey, Makoto, do you remember hearing about anybody else getting accepted into Hope's Peak?"

He thinks about it for a moment, before shaking his head. "No...sorry. I never really paid attention to Hope's Peak acceptance before my letter came. I only really heard about Ibuki Mioda because of my sister."

That makes me perk up. "You have a sister?"

His smile brightens. "Yeah, her name's Komaru. She's really great! You'll really like each other."

He says that with such confidence, but I can't help raise my brow and tilt my head. "You think so?"

"Yeah, of course! As soon as we get out of here, I'm going to introduce you guys. She's going to want to meet all of my friends!"

"I can't wait to meet her!" My mouth turns into a small smile. So, we're officially friends? I mean, I kinda figured that already, but it's really nice to hear out loud. His optimism always succeeds in making me smile. But it's obvious we're both getting tired, so I bring my wrist up to check the time. 8:49. We've been at this for almost two hours. Suddenly our progress doesn't seem so great. "I think it's about time I get going. We both need showers and a good night's sleep." I throw the notebook on the bed next to him and stand up from my chair. "Same time tomorrow?"

His face reddens as he stumbles out, "Uh, y-yeah, sure! Of course! See you tomorrow!"

"See ya, Makoto!" I have to stifle a giggle as I walk out. It's quite obvious that the poor boy isn't used to a girl being in his room so much. His awkwardness is adorable.

"Bye Yuna!" He says back and waves, his face still quite flushed.

I get back to my room, take a nice long shower, and get ready for bed. At least our capture had the decency to provide us with luxuries like tooth paste and body wash. I hop on the bed just in time to hear the god-awful chime.

***Ding Dong, Bing Bong***

“ _Ahem. This is a school announcement. It is now 10 p.m. As such, it is officially nighttime. Soon the doors to the dining hall will be locked, and entry at that point is strictly prohibited. Okay then, sweet dreams everyone! Goodnight, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite…_ ” The nighttime announcement rings out. I hope I never get used to that awful voice. 

Thus ends the second day of the rest of my life. Hopefully tomorrow we'll all have a bit more luck.


	11. Monokuma Theatre

I can't wait!

I can't wait!

It's all just too good!

Those visions will certainly do a number on you...

You're so stuck on escaping...

I knew that was a stroke of genius!

Just you wait.

You haven't even seen the motives yet.

Just picturing the despair filling your eyes and brain and heart and body...

I could simply cry...

It's all just too good!

I...

just...

can't...

WAIT!


End file.
